Grammy nominated quintet to play at UW Oshkosh

The UW Oshkosh music department will present Imani Winds as part of its Chamber Arts Series tonight in the Arts and Communication Center's Music Hall at 7:30 p.m.

Imani Winds is a Grammy nominated wind quintet that has toured across the country, playing venues like the Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Disney Hall and Carnegie Hall.

Imani Winds bassoonist Monica Ellis describes the band's sound as fun, innovative and surprising, and said performing for students plays a big role in the learning process of music.

The event is free to all UW Oshkosh students with a valid student ID, $8 for adults and seniors, $5 for non-UW Oshkosh students and $3 for children 12 and under.

"We all were students once and still are to a certain extent now," Ellis said. "It's very important to give back and try to have some impact on younger musicians the way teachers and older performers had on us."

Ellis said the band has been touring regularly for 10 years and taking in an audience's reaction to its performance is one of the most rewarding aspects.

"This genre of music is different and something that, usually, people have not heard of or seen before," Ellis said. "We love introducing audience to an unexpected surprise and delight."

Jenny Backes, a music major at Oshkosh, said attending a chamber music concert helps people appreciate phenomenal music.

"Going to the chamber arts concerts that our University provides is a great experience," Backes said. "Not only does it allow us to listen to amazing professional musicians, but it also expands our musical knowledge."

Joshua Hernday, president of the Students for Music organization on campus, helped organize the event and said the main goal of the Chamber Arts Series is to elicit an emotion from the audience.

"The sole mission of the Students for Music is to provide the highest quality musical experience to UW Oshkosh and the surrounding community by facilitating and administering a Chamber Arts Series that features the highest caliber musicians from around the world," Hernday said. "It sounds like a canned response, but we truly believe that what we do has the possibility to enrich the lives of every single person that walks into the concert hall."

A great deal goes into putting together a concert of this type and performances of Oshkosh's past are taken into consideration, Hernday said.

"We begin by looking through recommendations and past contacts of groups that have showed interest in performing at UWO," Hernday said. "We then contact them or their agents to get an idea of when they will be able to come and what their asking fee will be."

After finding the ideal artist, Hernday said the facilities are prepared for the concert and all of the supplies necessary for the show are gathered.

Hernday said a large part of preparing for an event like the Imani Winds concert is arranging for the artist's arrival.

"Once they get here we provide them with anything and everything that they need in order to make their stay at UWO as rewarding for them as it will surely be for us," Hernday said.

Hernday said choosing Imani Winds was not a difficult decision due to the high level of musicianship and quality the band is known for.           

"Students can expect nothing less than an awe-inspiring performance from the Imani Winds," Hernday said. "They are all unbelievable musicians themselves, and when you combine them into a wind quintet there are few in the world that rival them."

Bruce Atwell, a music professor at Oshkosh, said Imani Winds performs a lot of cutting edge music, which falls out of the realm of the normal woodwind quintet arsenal.

"They're a really exciting group," Atwell said. "They're one of the best quintets operating in the country right now, and we're really lucky to have them."

Atwell said the group has a lot of interesting musical influences ranging from African to jazz.

"People should expect to hear a nice variety of different styles of music presented by world class musicians in a really entertaining way," Atwell said.

The Chamber Arts series is sponsored by Student Allocations and the Students for Music on campus.