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.
PROGRAM
D’RIVERA: Kites (arr. Valerie Coleman)
AKIHO: The Synesthisia Suite
VILLA-LOBOS: Quinteto em forma de choros, W.231
AKIHO: BeLoud, Beloved, BeLonging
ABOUT IMANI WINDS
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.
ABOUT ANDY AKIHO
Andy Akiho is a “trailblazing” (Los Angeles Times) Pulitzer Prize finalist and seven-time GRAMMY®-nominated composer whose bold works unravel intricate and unexpected patterns while surpassing preconceived boundaries of classical music. Called “increasingly in-demand” by The New York Times, Akiho has earned international acclaim for his large-scale works that emphasize the natural theatricality of live performance. He is the only composer to be nominated for a GRAMMY® in the Best Contemporary Classical Composition category in 2022, 2023, and 2024.
Recent highlights include the world premieres of several major works, most notably Nisei — a sweeping new concerto for cellist Jeffrey Zeigler — which headlined this year’s Sun Valley Music Festival. Another standout: Sculptures, a groundbreaking, triple GRAMMY®-nominated work for Omaha Symphony honoring renowned visual artist Jun Kaneko. Finally, BeLonging, a powerful and highly-acclaimed new collaboration with Imani Winds with strong political undertones, which received two GRAMMY® nominations.
Equally at home writing chamber music and symphonies, Akiho was the Oregon Symphony’s 2023-2024 composer-in-residence. Other recent engagements include commissioned premieres by major orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra and Shanghai Symphony among others, and a sold-out run of “Seven Pillars” at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, choreographed by Benjamin Millepied and performed by Sandbox Percussion and LA Dance Project.
Akiho’s awards have included the Rome Prize and the Lili Boulanger Memorial Prize and he has been recognized by prestigious organizations including the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Harvard University Fromm Commission, Barlow Endowment, New Music USA, and Chamber Music America. His compositions have been featured by organizations such as Bang on a Can, American Composers Forum, The Intimacy of Creativity in Hong Kong, and the Heidelberg Festival.
An active steel pannist, Akiho has performed his works with Imani Winds, the LA Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella Series, the Berlin Philharmonic’s Scharoun Ensemble, the International Drum Festival in Taiwan, and more. Akiho’s recordings No One To Know One, The War Below, Seven Pillars, Oculus, Sculptures, and BeLonging feature brilliantly crafted compositions inspired by his primary instrument, the steel pan.
As a steel pannist, Akiho has a deeply physical relationship with playing, which undoubtedly informs his compositions. His style is further shaped by a nontraditional trajectory as a composer: having spent most of his 20s playing steel pan by ear in Trinidad and New York City, Akiho only began writing music at age 28. Still, these social and musical roots remain foundational. Akiho frequently composes into the late hours at coffee shops, nightclubs, and restaurants, taking breaks to get to know those around him. Similarly, Akiho develops relationships with his collaborators, as he writes for people, not instruments.
Akiho was born in 1979 in Columbia, SC, and is currently based in Portland, OR and New York City.
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