Composed 2019-22; c20 minutes 

BeLonging was conceived by Imani Winds and Andy Akiho, and premièred on October 26, 2022 at Kaufman Music Center’s Merkin Hall in New York, NY.

Oboist Toyin Spellman-Diaz reflects on Imani Winds’ collaboration which resulted in the seven-movement album BeLonging:

In 2019, Andy Akiho and Imani Winds were searching for inspiration for our collaboration. When we heard the sounds of immigrants held at a Brooklyn detention center, we knew we’d found our reason. In the middle of the winter of 2019 there was no heat at the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center. People were pounding on the walls and windows so loudly it was audible from the street. Such an awful moment, and yet as musicians, we couldn’t help but hear these sounds of protest—rhythmic and deeply felt—and be moved by them. This moment was the inspiration for this piece.

BELOUD begins with a unison, lock-stepped meandering loop, interspersed with a repetitive clanging from the lower instruments, perhaps evoking the sound of people banging on the walls of the detention center. The movement grows in density and virtuosity as it progresses, ending with tightly wound swirls that come to an abrupt end.

BELOVED. It is important to us that we perform for as many types of audience as possible, because why make music in a vacuum? The moment we heard the protest in Brooklyn we realized we needed to make more of an effort to bring moments of musical communion to all communities. To keep that promise, Andy didn’t start composing until he had visited Rikers Island and played music with members of its incarcerated population. After he finished the piece, Imani Winds and Andy went back to Rikers to talk to the same folks and play the completed project. 

BeLoved is open arms, it is circling high above the ground on a cloudless day, it is a moment to breathe, it is a composite sound equally made by all the players.

BELONGING. The official première of BeLoud, BeLoved, BeLonging, the one in a ‘traditional’ concert hall and not at Rikers Island, happened as a part of Imani Winds’ year-long residency at the Kaufman Center in New York City. The administration of Kaufman helped us pivot from the dream of playing at the detention center to the possibility of playing at Rikers and provided the resources to navigate the tremendous hurdles to get inside Rikers’ walls.

BeLonging starts simply with militaristic and percussive motives, and adds more and more layers of virtuosity as it moves inexorably forward. The extended clarinet solo provides a welcome break in the momentum, but by the end, the movement has become both firmly rooted and flying free, with a complicated bassoon reveille that signals its close.