GRAMMY®-winning classical ensemble Imani Winds has played adventurous classical music for audiences nationwide for nearly three decades. On May 17, they’ll be playing at the SHU Community Theater in Fairfield, Conn. WSHU’s Eda Uzunlar sat down with a founding member of the quintet, Toyin Spellman-Diaz, to learn more about what the audience can expect from the show.
WSHU: Some performers are nearly wordless on stage, but that doesn't describe Imani Winds. All of you talk throughout the performance about yourselves, about the pieces. It feels personal. Can you talk about that choice to have a bit of dialogue going?
TSD: Well, I'm ashamed that other people aren't talking. It's so fun to talk to the audience and have them get to know us a little bit. It's really important for there to be a breakdown of that wall between the stage and the audience. And so we introduced pieces not just so that we can introduce the music and the composers and the times it was written in or how it all fits together, but also so you can get to know us as individuals. I think we try our best to bring our personalities through our instruments. But I think having the introduction with our literal voices as a way to our musical voices means that everybody gets a little more connected.
WSHU: I know you have personal ties to Connecticut through family. Imani Winds performs all around, but does performing here make the experience even more special for you?
TSD: Every time we go to a place that is connected to our childhood or our own personal lives, the concert becomes that much more special. And of course, we all live in New York, so it's not like Fairfield is so incredibly far. But this is an important place in my childhood. My mother grew up in New Haven, as did my aunts. Like I said, my grandfather was a minister, and my grandmother taught Spanish and was a reading teacher. So I, I just have a lot of connections to the area. Every time I go up the Merritt, I feel like I'm going home.
WSHU: I've never heard anything so kind about Merritt. Now, this quintet has been playing for nearly 30 years. You started as a group out of college. What's changed? What's evolved?
TSD: In the beginning, we felt like we couldn't just play music by composers of color because we felt like we had to prove something. We had to prove that these musicians of color could play these instruments, but as time went on, we've realized that the music in and of itself is enough that as long as we do a great job of introducing it, we could play the most contemporary blippity blue blah bla music. Or we could play music by composers of color, or we could play the most sonorous, beautiful, quiet, contemplative stuff. All of it can be built into a wonderful concert. You just need to figure out stacking, where it goes and how you introduce it, and then you just play as your authentic self, and it sounds magnificent.
WSHU: And when you play some of the contemporary kind of music that an audience who's a little newer to classical music might not be familiar with, how might you introduce it?
TSD: Well, it's all the same. It's all the same, Eda. As long as you build a connection to the composer's intent, and maybe point out what's cool about it, or what's new, or what's particularly challenging, then people can understand it. Now, on the other hand, if we play in all sorts of different types of venues, we play from Carnegie Hall to prisons, some of that music we probably would not bring to some audiences. Gotta, gotta, what's it called? Read the room.
WSHU: And read the room, you will. Thank you so much for your time, Toyin. Fairfield is looking forward to having you.
TSD: Thank you, thank you.
