The Intercultural Music Initiative is Celebrating its 30th Season!
We are thrilled to celebrate our 30th anniversary season of the Intercultural Music Initiative! The Intercultural Music Initiative’s roots began as the St. Louis African Chorus in 1994, a community choir for singers of all ages to learn African choral music in diverse musical styles and African languages. Our mission is still to present music programming that integrates new and unfamiliar works by African descent and other racial minorities into the existing performance repertoire. Our concert series features distinguished guest artists, musicians of the IMI Chamber Players and the Songs of Africa Ensemble who form a growing community of interculturally minded artists and educators from around the globe. IMI Artists advocate for culturally inclusive repertoire and music curricula in schools, colleges and music conservatories through our educational program, Sonic Safari for Schools, which presents free concerts for area schools to expose students to diverse music and performers and help them learn about the roots of African American music.
Please join us at these upcoming concerts:
December 29, 2024 at 3:00 pm. Celebrate Kwanzaa featuring the Spirit of Angela West African Dance & Drum Ensemble. This popular family-friendly event educates audiences about the history of the Kwanzaa holiday and why what it celebrates. Venue: Pilgrim Congregational Church, 826 N. Union Blvd. in St. Louis.
January 26, 2025 at 3:00 pm. Pianist Artina McCain with the University City Symphony and the IMI Chamber Players. Hailed by the New York Times as a “virtuoso Pianist,” McCain will perform with the University City Symphony in a concert featuring Fred Onovwerosuoke’s Dance Tribute for Piano & Orchestra, and Helen Hagan’s Piano Concerto. The IMI Chamber Players will also perform Carlos Simon’s Giants and Astor Piazzolla’s Liebertango for woodwind quintet. Venue: 560 Center at 560 Trinity Ave. in University City, MO.
February 2, 2025 at 3:00 pm. The IMI Chamber Players Wind Quintet. The IMI Chamber Players are just as comfortable performing Beethoven and Mozart as they are new compositions and with sharing their passion for performing chamber music by lesser-known composers, particularly of African descent and other racial minorities. Works performed include music by Claude Arrieu, Hlib Taranov, Carlos Simon, Fred Onovwerosuoke, Arturo Marquez and Leonard Bernstein. Venue: First Presbyterian Church of Kirkwood, 100 E. Adams Ave, as part of its Con Spirito Concert Series.
February 9, 2025 at 3:00 pm. Songs of Africa: Roots of our Songs featuring Prisca Agbo. Togolese-French singer Prisca Agbo joins the Songs of Africa Ensemble for a showcase of favorite choral music from Togo, Nigeria, Ghana, Congo, Benin, South Africa, Namibia, the Gambia and other song traditions that span the gamut of African celebrations of community work, play and spirituality. Audiences are encouraged to dance, have fun and learn more about the diverse music traditions of Africa. Venue: Webster Groves Presbyterian Church, 45 W Lockwood Ave. in Webster Groves, Missouri.
April 25, 2025 at 7:30 pm. Pianist Chelsea Randall and kora master Malang Jobarteh. NY-native pianist and curator Chelsea Randall is the founder of the American Mavericks Project (AMP), which celebrates piano repertoire by Black American composers through performances and commissions, and The Crossings Project, which explores connections between African and Western classical music. She is an alum of NYU, The Royal College of Music, UK and Juilliard. Joining her is NY-based kora master Malang Jobarteh, who hails from a distinguished lineage of Gambian musicians and has been featured on albums with Boubacar Diebate, Bela Fleck and Dialy Kounda, among others. This concert will explore the intersections between African and Western music in a performance pairing piano works by African composers with kora music.
General admission to all concerts is free, however we suggest that you reserve your tickets in advance. For ticket links, visit the calendar page on the IMI website at https://imusici.org/calendar/
Support diverse music programs in St. Louis – make your donation at: https://imusici.org/donate/
Program Notes:
Performer Bios:
Mary Bryant, clarinet
Clarinetist Mary Bryant has the pleasure and privilege of performing with some of the ensembles she grew up enjoying in her native St. Louis, where she has been playing professionally for over 30 years. She is a replacement player with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Illinois Symphony Orchestra and is a regular member of Union Avenue Opera Orchestra. She performs with numerous other ensembles of various genres, including chamber music, musical theater (doubling on saxophone), concert bands, and a jazz ensemble in which she also sings. She received a Bachelor’s Degree from the St. Louis Conservatory of Music, where she studied with then St. Louis Symphony Principal Clarinetist George Silfies. After years of adjunct instruction at Lindenwood and Missouri Baptist Universities, in 2020 she earned her K-12 Music Education Certification which she now uses to teach general music in the Hazelwood School District.
Wendy Hymes, flute
From an early age, flutist Wendy Hymes was fascinated with the flute traditions from countries around the world which has led her to become a passionate advocate for intercultural music for flute. Her debut solo CD, African Art Music for Flute, features music for flute by composers from Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda and South Africa which was also the subject of her doctoral dissertation at Louisiana State University. As an arts administrator, she was the Director of the Fowler Performing Arts Center in Jonesboro, AR, and currently directs the Intercultural Music Initiative Chamber Players, a mixed ensemble dedicated to performing music by diverse composers. Dr. Hymes has performed abroad in Ghana, Togo, England, and Brazil. She serves on the National Flute Association’s Pedagogy Committee and has been a featured performer at numerous National Flute Association Conventions. In St. Louis, she is adjunct instructor of flute at Lindenwood University and she performs with many groups including the IMI Chamber Players, Winter Opera, Union Avenue Opera, the St.
Louis Philharmonic and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Hymes holds BA, MM and DMA degrees in flute performance, music theory and arts administration from Principia College, Indiana University and Louisiana State University respectively. www.wendyhymes.com
Tricia Jöstlein, horn
An active freelance musician, Tricia Jöstlein frequently performs as an extra musician with the St. Louis Symphony and serves as Adjunct Professor of Horn at Webster University. She holds positions as Principal Horn of Winter Opera St. Louis and the Heartland Festival Orchestra in Washington, IL. She previously held posts as Principal Horn of the Omaha Symphony and the Des Moines Metro Opera Orchestra, as well as positions with the Honolulu and Richmond Symphony Orchestras. Born and raised in central Nebraska, Ms. Jöstlein completed high school at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. She earned a Bachelors of Music at Rice University, followed by graduate studies at the University of Michigan. She lives in University City with her husband and fellow musician, Thomas, and their sons, Klaus and Max.
Hank Skolnick, bassoon
Henry Skolnick was a member of the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, in Miami, for eighteen years and taught bassoon and wind chamber music at Florida International University for fifteen years. He has been on the summer faculty at Interlochen Arts Camp since 2004. In addition to his years in the Florida Philharmonic, he has performed with the St. Louis Symphony, The Boston Symphony, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Palm Beach Opera, the Kansas City Symphony, The Colorado Symphony, the Miami Chamber Symphony, the Florida Grand Opera Orchestra and the Symphony Orchestra Berlin. He currently serves as Principal bassoon of Sinfonia da Camera, in Champaign-Urbana, IL. On the baroque bassoon Henry performs with the Kingsbury Ensemble, Collegium Vocale, and L’Esprit de Musique.
Carrie Smith, oboe & English horn
Carrie Smith, a native of St. Louis, has enjoyed an international career as a musician, performing in orchestras and as a soloist in various countries including Canada, Spain, France, USSR, and Mexico. Predominantly performing in Mexico from 2003-2011, she worked in both the Orquesta de Aguascalientes as English hornist, and in the Filarmonica de Jalisco as principal oboist. In Guadalajara, she additionally was professor of music at
the Universidad de Guadalajara. Smith studied oboe at Indiana University-Bloomington and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she received her DMA in oboe performance in 2003.
Composer Bios:
Valerie Coleman, born in 1970 in Louisville, Kentucky, she began music studies at 11 and made a hobby of composing. By 14, she had already written three full-length symphonies and had won local and state flute competitions. Coleman is the founder of Grammy-nominated wind quintet Imani Winds, an ensemble widely recognized for their significant contributions to the chamber music repertoire. Coleman’s chamber works have taken their place in standard wind repertoire and received honors such as her UMOJA being listed as one of the “Top 100 American Chamber Works” by Chamber Music America. Her music has been heard on internationally syndicated radio shows including NPR’s Performance Today and All Things Considered, Minnesota Public Radio’s St. Paul Sunday among others. She has been featured composer for Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, a composer fellow for the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and composer teaching artist for Young Audiences of New York.
Portraits of Josephine portrays the rise of native St. Louisan Joesphine Baker. Coleman’s note for this movement says: “St. Louis, the Southern hub for the musically-educated Negro, where young Josephine stole coals to sell and picked bruised fruit from market floors in order to eat. One could hear a street band (trombones, trumpets, clarinet, drums, etc.) at almost every corner. It was there that she was a witness to the East St. Louis riot, where the Negroes fled to safety from the murdering mob. Later, Josephine admits she’s been runnin’ ever since…”
Fred Onovwerosuoke (b. 1960) Award-winning composer Fred Onovwerosuoke (“Fredo,” as most friends and colleagues call him) was born in Ghana to Nigerian parents. Onovwerosuoke grew up in both home countries and eventually naturalized in the United States. FredO’s works have been featured in a variety of recordings, films, documentaries and radio, including Robert De Niro’s film, The Good Shepherd, Niyi Coker’s Pennies for the Boatman, IMI Chamber Players’ Dances & Rhapsodies: Works for Wind Quintet, William Chapman Nyaho’s CD, ASA, Hymes/Hollister’s CD African Art Music for Flute, Peter Henderson’s CD, Twenty-Four Studies in African Rhythms for Piano, among others. His book, Songs of Africa: 22 Pieces for Mixed Voices published by Oxford University Press is a favorite among choral directors across the United States and globally, and his Twenty-four Studies in African Rhythms is acclaimed as one of the most-demanded African-rhythm influenced piano studies known. (culled from www.fredomusic.com).
Rhapsody No. 2 is based on the popular Kenyan love song, Malaika (my angel). Edo is from Four More Dances for Wind Quintet, whose melodies are drawn from the composer’s travels in over thirty African countries. In Edo (Royal Serenade), the melody is inspired by royal court traditions from the ancient Edo (or Benin) Kingdom of western Africa. The queen-mother (heard here portrayed by the English horn) who rarely visited the king’s court, would often be serenaded by court musicians.
Taranov, Gleb (Pavlovich), was a Ukrainian composer and teacher; b. Kiev, June 15, 1904; d. there, Jan. 25, 1989. He studied composition with Mikhail Chernov at the Petrograd Cons. (1917-19) and composition with Gliere and Liatoshinsky and conducting with Blumenfield and Malko at the Kiev Cons. (1920-25). He served on the faculty of the Kiev Cons. (1925-41; 1944-74). In 1957 he was named Honored National Artist of the Ukraine. His works were cast in the accepted Soviet mold, known as socialist realism, with emphasis on the celebration of historical events.
His Woodwind Quintet (1959) is in four movements and uses Ukrainian folk songs as well as reflecting the models of past Russian composers such as Tchaikovsky, Gliere and Prokofiev.
Amanda Harberg (b. 1973) is an American composer whose work has been described by the New York Times as “a sultry excursion into lyricism.” Her writing for a wide range of instruments weaves classical Western tradition with contemporary influences to create a distinctively personal style. Amanda Harberg’s Suite for Wind Quintet was commissioned by the Dorian Wind Quintet in 2017. Suite for Wind Quintet is in four movements- 1. Cantus, 2. Furlana, 3. Fantasia and 4. Cabaletta. The melodic material heard in the very opening of the piece can be heard recurring and transforming throughout the four movements, until it unites triumphantly in the final coda with the theme of the concluding movement. The piece was inspired by the concept of placing Renaissance and Baroque-inspired dance suites into Harberg’s idiom as a 21st century composer.
Louise-Marie Simon (30 November 1903 – 7 March 1990), pen name Claude Arrieu, was a prolific French composer. She wrote hundreds of works in varying formats, including stage works, concert works, and movie scores. She was also a teacher and worked as a producer and assistant head of sound effects at French Radio.Born in Paris, Arrieu was a classically trained musician from an early age. Her mother, Cecile Paul Simon, was also a composer.[1] Arrieu became particularly interested in works by Bach and Mozart, and later, Igor Stravinsky. However, Gabriel Fauré, Claude Debussy, and Maurice Ravel provided her the most inspiration.
Dreaming of a career as a virtuoso, she entered the Conservatoire de Paris in 1924. She became a piano student of Marguerite Long and took classes from Georges Caussade, Noël Gallon, Jean Roger-Ducasse and Paul Dukas. In 1932, she received first prize for composition.
From this point on, she developed her personal style. She was particularly interested in the evolution of musical language and various technical means available. In 1935, she joined the French Radio Broadcasting Program Service (« Service des programmes de la Radiodiffusion française »), where she was employed to 1947. She participated in the development of a wide range of programming, including Pierre Schaeffer’s experimental radio series, La Coquille à planètes (1943–1944). In 1949, she won the Prix Italia of the RAI for her score Frédéric Général.
Her Quintette en ut, 1952 is a classic in the repertoire and has been recorded several times. It is in five movements in a Neo-Classical style. It is beautifully crafted and frames each of the wind instruments perfectly.
Carlos Simon (born 1986) is an African-American composer of Western classical music. He is the composer in residence for the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, inaugural Composer Chair for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and associate professor at Georgetown University. Born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Atlanta, Simon is the son of a preacher and grew up in a household where he was forbidden to listen to anything other than gospel music; he has described gospel’s improvisatory nature as a critical influence in the development of his own compositional style, alongside the more formal elements of the work of such composers as Ludwig van Beethoven and Brahms. Simon’s music is informed by his interest in social justice issues, and frequently incorporates activist themes in his work; such pieces include Elegy for string quartet, honoring the memories of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner, and Requiem for the Enslaved, in which African-American spirituals are combined with the Latin mass and elements of hip hop to tell the story of the 1838 sale of slaves to discharge the debts of Georgetown University. Other compositions are inspired by the work of visual artists, such as Bill Traylor and Romare Bearden.
The composer says of his work Giants:
“This piece is inspired by five Black Americans who have influenced me and my identity as a composer. The movements are:
Bessie smith (Blues singer), Maya Angelou (Poet and author), Ronald E. McNair (NASA astronaut and physicist, who died at the age of 35 during the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger), Cornel West (philosopher, theologian, political activist, politician, social critic, and public intellectual), Herbie Hancock (jazz musician, bandleader, and composer.)
“Each movement is meant to embody the work and personality (as best as I can gather) through music. I want to not only pay homage to these giants but offer a character study through music of their works.”
West Side Story, one of Leonard Bernstein’s (1918 – 1990) most popular works, is a modern-day version of Romeo and Juliet set in 1950s New York. Arranger Richard Price is a Grammy award-winning producer, recording engineer and editor with over 1000 commercial CDs to his credit. Prior to entering the recording field, Price had a 15-year career as a professional horn player with the Borealis Wind Quintet, Galliard Brass Ensemble, Broadway shows, and a New York freelance artist. His arrangements are performed by many groups internationally. We are performing two movements of his beautiful West Side Story arrangement for woodwind quintet. You’ll recognize your favorite tunes including I Feel Pretty (in which Price gives each instrument a chance to sing the tune), Tonight, and America.
Special thanks for Dick and Mary Ann Shaw for hosting tonight’s concert and to our funding partners:
