Imani Winds & Boston Brass

Imani Winds is the 2024 GRAMMY® winner in the Classical Compendium category for Jeff Scott’s “Passion for Bach and Coltrane” released on their recently formed record label, Imani Winds Media.

Celebrating over a quarter century of music making, the three time GRAMMY® nominated group has led both a revolution and evolution of the wind quintet through their dynamic playing, adventurous programming, imaginative collaborations and outreach endeavors that have inspired audiences of all ages and backgrounds.

The ensemble’s playlist embraces traditional chamber music repertoire, and newly commissioned works from voices that reflect historical events and the times in which we currently live. 

Recent projects include a Jessie Montgomery composition inspired by her great-grandfather’s migration from the American south to the north, socially conscious music by Andy Akiho, reflecting on mass incarceration, and a work by Carlos Simon celebrating iconic figures of the African American community. These works and more have been commissioned as a part of the Legacy Commissioning Project.

Twenty-six seasons of full-time touring has brought Imani Winds to virtually every major chamber music series, performing arts center, and summer festival in the U.S. They regularly perform in prominent venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Kennedy Center and have a presence at festivals such as Chamber Music Northwest, Chautauqua Institution and Banff Centre.

Since 1986, Boston Brass has set out to establish a one-of-a-kind musical experience, featuring colorful classical arrangements, burning jazz standards, and the best of original brass repertoire. Boston Brass treats audiences to a unique brand of musical entertainment that bridges the ocean of classical formality to delight regular concertgoers and newcomers alike with great music and boisterous fun. The quintet has played to audiences in all 50 U.S. states, and over 30 countries. Though the band regularly concertizes as a quintet, Boston Brass also  performs with orchestras, concert and marching bands, organists, and jazz bands, and regularly collaborates with composers to create new works for the brass canon.

Music education is at the core of Boston Brass’s identity, and the quintet continues to conduct sessions around the world, including masterclasses and residencies at such prestigious institutions as the Eastman School of Music, The Juilliard School, the Royal Academy of Music in London, and Yong Siew Toh Conservatory in Singapore. In conjunction with the Yamaha Corporation, the quintet engaged in a 2018 tour of major Chinese music conservatories, and in 2021 the members of Boston Brass were appointed to the International Artist Advisory Council to the College of Music at Mahidol University in Thailand. The Boston Brass have been featured as educators and performers at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, the American Bandmaster Association Conference, American Band College, Western International Band Clinic, and at innumerable state music education conferences. After a long hiatus, 2022 finally saw the return of the Boston Brass Summer Intensive in its new home at North Dakota State University’s Challey School of Music.

A. Khachaturian – Sabre Dance
J.S. Bach – Wachet Auf
M. de Falla – 3 Cornered Hat Selections
A. Piazzolla – Verano Porteño
A. Sandoval – New Work