Composed 2005; 17 minutes 

Cuban-born Paquito D’Rivera works in a variety of musical genres. In his teens, he was a founding member of the Orquesta Cubana de Musica Moderna and was co-director of the innovative musical group Irakere. Their explosive mixture of jazz, rock, classical, and traditional Cuban music broke new ground. They toured extensively throughout America and Europe and won a GRAMMY and several nominations. With a discography that now includes over 30 solo albums, D’Rivera has won 5 GRAMMY and 12 Latin GRAMMY awards. His many other awards include a Living Jazz Legend Award from the Kennedy Center in 2007 and, most recently, the Leonard Bernstein Award for the Elevation of Music in Society from the Longy School of Music of Bard College.

D'Rivera’s ensembles include a Quintet and Big Band which carry his name, and he continues to perform with symphony orchestras, frequently introducing his own compositions and numerous commissions to new audiences. His books include My Saxual Life and a novel Oh, La Habana. He has received many Lifetime Achievement awards, summed up by the National Endowment for the Arts website this way: “Paquito D’Rivera has become the consummate multinational ambassador, creating and promoting a cross-culture of music that moves effortlessly among jazz, Latin, and Mozart.” 

Commissioned by Imani Winds, Kites was originally written for wind quintet, piano, and clarinet (played by D’Rivera at the première). The work played in this performance is an arrangement of the original septet by Louisville, KY-born composer Valerie Coleman, the founder, creator, and former flutist of the Imani Winds. 

The two movements of Kites were inspired by a poem (author unknown) spoken at the beginning of each movement. It is a metaphor for the paradox of freedom: the kite is free to fly up in the sky, but it is bound to earth by the string:

I would like to be a kite, and soar up over the trees.
I would like to try to reach the sky with butterflies and bees.

I would like to be a kite, and with my tail of red and white.
I’d love to fly so high, the things below would disappear from sight.

When once you have tested flight, you will forever walk the Earth with your
eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.