The innovative unique programming of the Westport Arts Center has been quite evident with the launching of the Composers Project, a series of concerts and conversations that exposes the audience to new music in a non-threatening and educational manner. On Friday evening, April 25, the Grammy-nominated Imani Winds will appear at the Westport's Seabury Center at 8:00 p.m. The pre-concert talk led by the Artists in Residence, the Antares quartet, will feature composers and performers Valerie Coleman and Jeff Scott.
Valerie Coleman, flutist and composer, founded the Imani Windwind Quintet ten years ago. She is the two-time laureate of the Young Artist Competition at Boston University where she also received the "Woodwind Award", was recipient of the Aspen Music Festival Wombwell Kentucky Award and was the first winner of the Michelle E. Sahm Memorial Award at the Tanglewood Festival. She serves on the faculty of the Juilliard School of Music Advancement Program and The Interschool Orchestras of New York.
Jeff Scott began studying the french horn at age 14 and was the recipient of a scholarship to the Brooklyn College Preparatory Division. He received his Bachelor's degree from Manhattan School of Music, and Master's Degree from SUNY at Stony Brook and was privileged to study with Jerome Ashby, David Jolley, Scott Brubaker and William Purvis. He has given many workshops and performances under the auspices of Arts Genesis, Young Audiences of New York, and the Midori Foundation. He is a prolific arranger and composer that include scoring the off-Broadway production of Becoming Something, The Canada Lee Story, and many arrangements and original works for various chamber music and jazz groups.
The Imani Winds were awarded he 2007 ASCAP Award, the 2002 CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming and the CMA/WQXR Award for their debut CD Umoja. Their program consists of Valerie Coleman's Suite: Portraits of Josephine, Jeff Scott's Homage to Duke, Julio Medaglia's Suite: Belle Epoque in Sud-Amerka and Valerie Coleman's Libertango.
