Combining steel pan, winds, and spoken word, the “trailblazing” (Los Angeles Times) composer Andy Akiho ’11MM and the Grammy Award-winning Imani Winds join forces for BeLoud, BeLoved, BeLonging, a percussive work inspired by protest and resilience.

EPSG:4326

Andy Akiho, percussion, with Imani Winds

Yale University

UMS is thrilled to welcome back the Imani Winds. This four-time Grammy-nominated ensemble has led both a revolution and an evolution of the wind quintet through its dynamic playing, adventurous programming, and imaginative collaborations. Join us for this special K12 performance, which guarantees to inspire audiences of all ages and backgrounds.

School Day Performance for Grades 2-12: Imani Winds

University of Michigan

Jeff Scott was a founding horn player of the wind quintet Imani Winds and created the Grammy-winning oratorio Passion for Bach and Coltrane. The current Imani Winds ensemble, the Harlem Quartet, and a jazz trio come together to perform the piece at The Englert. A.B. Spellman—a poet, music critic, arts administrator, and legend of the Black Arts Movement—will provide the stirring oration at the heart of the work.

Imani Winds and Harlem Quartet

The Englert Theatre

2024 GRAMMY winner Imani Winds joins forces with Pulitzer Prize finalist Andy Akiho for an innovative program featuring works by D’Rivera, Villa-Lobos and Akiho. Hailed as “strikingly virtuosic, immaculately tight, [and] stylistically agile” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), Imani Winds brings exceptional artistry to this compelling collaboration.

Imani Winds & Andy Akiho, steel pan

Rockport Music-Shalin Liu Performance Center

Celebrating over a quarter century of music making, the three-time GRAMMY nominated Imani Winds bring their adventurous and ground-breaking wind quintet programming for a two-day residency at LSU, culminating in an exciting recital performance.

Imani Winds

Louisiana State University

USA Laidlaw Performing Arts Center

Mobile Chamber Music

Mobile Chamber Music presents the Imani Winds in concert in the Laidlaw Performing Arts Center Recital Hall on Sunday, September 29, 2024 at 3:00 p.m

Mobile Chamber Music - Imani Winds

University of South Alabama

The dynamic, 2024 Grammy Award-winning Imani Winds return to collaborate with Portland’s own BodyVox on our latest chamber music and dance creation! Beautiful Everything will be an extraordinary evening of inspiring music and innovative dance celebrating beauty, hope, optimism, and joy. The Imani Winds will perform the West Coast Premiere of Shawn E. Okpebholo’s Rise for Wind Quintet, a CMNW co-commission. Sure to draw crowds, don’t miss this entertaining fusion of music and motion at the glorious Patricia Reser Center for the Arts!!

Imani Winds + BodyVox: Beautiful Everything

Patricia Reser Center for the Arts

Come join us! Our hosts, Carl and Marge Abbott, have recently moved to their new home in Parkview (part of Terwilliger Plaza) and invite you to come for an intimate house concert performed by the glorious Imani Winds. Enjoy a tasty appetizer reception, chamber music for wind quintet in the Abbott’s beautiful living room, and get to know the remarkable Imani musicians. And yes, you will see for yourself that Parkview really does have a fantastic view!

Chamber Party: Party with the Imani Winds!

Celebrating over a quarter century of music making, the twice GRAMMY® nominated Imani Winds 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.

Argyros Performing Arts Center

Celebrating over 20 years of music making, the twice Grammy nominated Imani Winds has led both a revolution and the 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 as a 21st century group, Imani Winds is devoutly committed to expanding the wind quintet repertoire by commissioning music from new voices that reflect historical events and the times in which we currently live. Imani Winds regularly performs in prominent international concert venues, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, Walt Disney Hall and the Kimmel Center. Their touring schedule has taken them throughout the Asian continent, Brazil, Australia, England, New Zealand and across Europe.

Ford Center for the Performing Arts

No other quintet has forged such a unique and revolutionary path through the chamber music landscape as the Imani Winds. The ensemble embraces traditional chamber music repertoire while remaining devoutly committed to promoting diversity in the arts. Celebrating over two decades of music making, Imani Winds is recognized for its dynamic playing, adventurous programming, outreach endeavors, and efforts to commission works from new voices that reflect historical events and today’s world. The program features the diversity of American composers and includes a Kennedy Center co-commission by Shawn Okpebholo.

Kennedy Center

The Oberlin-alumni founded woodwind quintet Imani Winds collaborates with cellist Seth Parker Woods, pianist Cory Smythe, and actor Michael Braugher '14 in a program anchored by Jeff Scott’s Fallen Petals of Nameless Flowers, which tells the stories of four Michiganders who were sentenced to life without parole as juveniles.

Imani Winds with cellist Seth Parker Woods, pianist Cory Smythe, and actor Michael Braugher '14

Oberlin College

A guest master class presented by Imani Winds in Bibbins 325.

Guest Master Class: Imani Winds

TICKETS AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE AUGUST 2 at 8:00 AM MDT. Designed to educate and engage, the free Family Concerts at Tippet Rise explore instruments, composers, history, and themes in an interactive performance. On Sunday, August 27, the twice-nominated wind quintet Imani Winds will perform a program designed to enlighten audience members of all ages and backgrounds. For over two decades, Imani Winds has led both a revolution and evolution of the wind quintet through their dynamic playing, adventurous programming, imaginative collaborations, and outreach endeavors. Each family concert performance is preceded by an “instrument petting zoo,” in which children are encouraged to make sounds with string instruments and enjoy making the magic of music.

Free Family Concert: Imani Winds

Tippet Rise Art Center

For over two decades, the twice Grammy nominated Imani Winds 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. We are thrilled to officially welcome them to Tippet Rise for their concert debut, having had the privilege of collaborating with them on recording and performance film projects over the past few years. In this special outdoor performance at the Domo by Ensamble Studio, members Brandon Patrick George (flute), Toyin Spellman-Diaz (oboe), Kevin Newton (horn), Mark Dover (clarinet), and Monica Ellis (bassoon) will perform their program titled Black and Brown, which celebrates composers of color including Jeff Scott, Paquito D’Rivera, and Wayne Shorter. The program also features works written for Imani Winds: Reena Esmail’s The Light is the Same, commissioned by The Lied Center of Kansas and premiered in 2017, and Julio Medaglia’s Belle Epoque en Sud-America, commissioned by the La Jolla Music Society, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Da Camera of Houston, and the Library of Congress, which premiered in 2006.

For over two decades Imani Winds has championed the evolution of the wind quintet through adventurous programming. With De Memorias, they take inspiration from Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Tania León’s woodwind quintet, dedicated to the Cuban composer Alfredo Diez Nieto. In doing so, Imani journeys onto the field of contemporary Latin composers and the masters who blazed the trail ahead of them. This reflective prism reveals a textured landscape, one that complements introspective designs by Miguel del Águila and Astor Piazzolla with the playfulness of Paquito D’Rivera, Heitor Villa Lobos, and Pixinguinha’s madcap Um a Zero.

Imani Winds / De Memorias

Lafayette College

Acclaimed for their “bristling energy” and “febrile flair and panache” (Chicago Classical Review), the Grammy-nominated Imani Winds has carved out a distinct presence in the classical music world with its dynamic playing and culturally poignant programming. Featuring works by Cuban, Brazilian, Argentine, and Uruguayan-American composers, the group’s program reflects its deep commitment to enriching the traditional wind quintet repertoire.

American Philosophical Society

Embark on a musical odyssey with renowned Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä. The evening begins with Missy Mazzoli’s Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres), a swirling, celestial work inspired by planetary motion and the roiling drone of the medieval stringed instrument, the hurdy-gurdy. Henry Dorn’s powerful Transitions follows, a deeply personal tone poem reflecting on loss, transformation, and resilience.

Osmo Conducts Bartók

Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

Don’t miss a chance to observe the revolutionary Imani Winds in a public masterclass on Tuesday, January 27, 2026, from 1:00 – 3:00 PM in the Chorus Room, located on the second floor of the Jacksonville Center for the Performing Arts (JCPA). Celebrating over a quarter century of music making, the four 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. Appointed in 2021 as Curtis Institute of Music’s first ever Faculty Wind Quintet, Imani Winds commitment to education runs deep.


This event is free and open to the public for observation and is presented in collaboration with the Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestra.

Winds Masterclass with Imani Winds

Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestra

The trailblazing Imani Winds bring their vibrant, genre-spanning repertoire and cultural storytelling to the Ritz stage — a dynamic celebration of wind chamber music like you’ve never heard before.

Ritz Carlton Amelia Island

The GRAMMY-nominated Imani Winds has carved out a distinct presence in the classical music world with their dynamic playing and culturally poignant programming. Their PCMS return opens with Red Clay & Mississippi Delta, a virtuosic work by the group’s original flutist, Valerie Coleman, that merges classical technique and orchestration with the blues dialect and charm of the south. Globe-spanning works by Cuban, Finnish, Palestinian-American, and Turkish composers follow, reflecting the ensemble’s deep commitment to enriching the traditional wind quintet repertoire.

Imani Winds

Jan 25, 2026

Osmo Conducts Bartók

Jan 27, 2026

Winds Masterclass with Imani Winds

Jan 27, 2026

Imani Winds

Apr 7, 2026

Imani Winds

Nov 18, 2025

Andy Akiho, percussion, with Imani Winds

Oct 27, 2025

School Day Performance for Grades 2-12: Imani Winds

Imani Winds