Imani Winds and Stewart Goodyear, Piano

The Grammy award-winning Imani Winds joins forces with dynamic pianist and composer Stewart Goodyear. Blending music and narrative—and inspired by the African American folktale “The People Could Fly”—this program marks America’s 250th year with a mediation on freedom, memory, and transformation. Rather than a patriotic celebration, it offers a space for reflection—a journey through works by living composers who give voice to migration, resistance, and the ongoing pursuit of justice. 

Tickets: $30 general public | $20 Middlebury ID holders/PASS Members | $10 youth (under 21) | $5 Middlebury students. Reserved seating. Tickets on sale in September: http://go.middlebury.edu/tickets

Approximate running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes, including 1 intermission

About the Artists:
Imani Winds
Celebrating three decades of transformative music-making, the GRAMMY®-winning and four-time nominated Imani Winds have led both a revolution and an evolution of the wind quintet. Known for their dynamic playing, adventurous programming, imaginative collaborations, and impactful outreach, they have inspired audiences of all ages around the globe. Their programming reflects the urgency and diversity of our times, amplifying stories and voices too often left unheard.

Now in their 30th touring season, the Imani Winds regularly appear on major chamber music series and at leading performing arts centers and summer festivals, including Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Chamber Music Northwest, Banff Centre, and their reach extends across Asia, Europe, South America, Australia, and New Zealand.

Appointed in 2021 as the Curtis Institute of Music’s first ever Faculty Wind Quintet, they also lead residencies and masterclasses nationwide, reaching thousands of students annually at institutions such as the University of Chicago, Eastman School of Music, and Duke University. Learn more about the Imani Winds: https://imaniwinds.com/

Stewart Goodyear, Piano/Composer
Stewart Goodyear is a composer-pianist in the rarest tradition—an artist who writes the music, performs it at marathon scale, and plays every note as though he made it his own. Proclaimed “a phenomenon” by the Los Angeles Times and “one of the best pianists of his generation” by the Philadelphia Inquirer, he belongs to a line that runs from Beethoven through Liszt, Rachmaninov, and Bartók: musicians who composed the repertoire and performed it themselves. Born in Toronto to a Trinidadian mother and a British father, Goodyear carries two worlds into that tradition—and a voice unmistakably his own.

That voice is most fully realized in his own music. His commissions reach across orchestra, chamber ensemble, and solo instrument, including recent works for the Chineke! Orchestra, the Penderecki String Quartet, and the Honens International Piano Competition. Goodyear is known, too, for his Sonatathon—all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas in a single day— and of his sonata recording,  Anthony Tommasini wrote in The New York Times of “a remarkable achievement… pristine technique, infectious energy and fascinating attention to detail.” 

He trained at the Glenn Gould School of Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music, graduating at 15. He then attended the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Leon Fleisher, Gary Graffman, and Claude Frank, and went on to the Juilliard School, where he took a master’s in piano performance. Learn more about Stewart Goodyear: https:/www.stewartgoodyearpiano.com/

Program:
Imani Winds
Brandon Patrick George, Flute
Mekhi Gladden, Oboe
Mark Dover, Clarinet
Kevin Newton, Horn
Monica Ellis, Bassoon
Stewart Goodyear, Piano

HUTCHINS, arr. LOGGINS-HULL Emmanuel                            

OKPEBHOLO Rise                                    
i.    Seeds
ii.    Harmony
iii.    Spark!

D’RIVERA Kites             
i.    Kites Over Havana
ii.    Wind Chimes

Intermission

GOODYEAR Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso                     
Stuart Goodyear, piano

GOODYEAR New Work for Quintet (VT Premiere)                        
Imani Winds

GOODYEAR New Work for Sextet (VT Premiere)    
Imani Winds and Stuart Goodyear, piano

Sponsored by the Performing Arts Series, the Paul Nelson Performance Endowment, and the Rothrock Family Residency Fund.

Learn more about the artists:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imaniwinds
https://www.facebook.com/stewart.goodyear
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imaniwinds/
https://www.instagram.com/stewartgoodyear78/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/imaniwinds
https://youtube.com/@stewartgoodyear8317?si=NklpntsbFT_CqzPU
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6kibSlqTMbsHaLYTi0Numt?si=RITLQFcZR4W8b…
https://open.spotify.com/artist/6Uw4yKZKLOhjuix5CUVi08?si=Zmf_FWS_RROxT…
Watch a video:  https://youtu.be/4pFI-Yy4jm8?si=48Q0mLLF8jl6uKIf
Stewart Goodyear plays Debussy’s L’Isle Joyeuse

Performance subject to change.