Toyin Spellman-Diaz

Last updated

Toyin Spellman-Diaz is an American oboist. She grew up in Washington, D.C. where she found a love for classical music through her parents immense record collection. [1] Spellman-Diaz is know for her significant solo work and orchestra career, as well as her career in chamber music with the group Imani Winds. [1] Spellman-Diaz is active in working to diversify the classical music world especially in the wind quintet and orchestral space. [2]

Contents

Early life and education

Spellman-Diaz grew up in Washington, DC. [1] She attended Oberlin Conservatory of music where she attained a Bachelors of Music. She additionally attended Manhattan School of Music where she earned both a Masters Degree and a Professional Studies Degree. [1]

Solo career

Spellman-Diaz has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Chicago Civic Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, American Symphony Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the Orchestra of St. Lukes. [3] In addition, Spellman-Diaz has been a soloist with the Chicago Civic Orchestra, Manhattan Virtuosi, as well as with the Kennedy Center Youth Orchestra. [1]

Achievements

Imani Winds

Spellman-Diaz has been a member of the Imani Winds since its founding in 1997. [5] The Imani Winds are an American wind quartet based in New York. [6] The group has three Grammy Award nominations and one win. [6] The group is dedicated to diversifying the wind quintet through representation in players and composers. [2] The group has commissioned many pieces by composers chosen for their unique life experience that lend themself to composing on historical and contemporary societal conditions. [6]

Related Research Articles

The 22nd Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 27, 1980, at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, and were broadcast live on American television. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the year 1979. This year was notable for being the first year to have a designated category for Rock music.

The 25th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 23, 1983, at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year.

John Paul Corigliano Jr. is an American composer of contemporary classical music. With over 100 compositions, he has won accolades including a Pulitzer Prize, five Grammy Awards, Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, and an Academy Award.

The 6th Annual Grammy Awards were held on May 12, 1964, at Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. They recognized accomplishments by musicians for the year 1963. Henry Mancini won 4 awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joan Tower</span> American composer, concert pianist and conductor

Joan Tower is a Grammy-winning contemporary American composer, concert pianist and conductor. Lauded by The New Yorker as "one of the most successful woman composers of all time", her bold and energetic compositions have been performed in concert halls around the world. After gaining recognition for her first orchestral composition, Sequoia (1981), a tone poem which structurally depicts a giant tree from trunk to needles, she has gone on to compose a variety of instrumental works including Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, which is something of a response to Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, the Island Prelude, five string quartets, and an assortment of other tone poems. Tower was pianist and founding member of the Naumburg Award-winning Da Capo Chamber Players, which commissioned and premiered many of her early works, including her widely performed Petroushskates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orpheus Chamber Orchestra</span> American chamber orchestra

The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is a classical music chamber orchestra based in New York City. They have won several Grammy Awards, and are known for their collaborative leadership style in which the musicians, not a conductor, interpret the score.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tania León</span> Cuban-American composer and conductor

Tania León is a Cuban-born American composer of both large scale and chamber works. She is also renowned as a conductor, educator, and advisor to arts organizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Augusta Read Thomas</span> American composer (born 1964)

Augusta Read Thomas is an American composer and University Professor of Composition in the Department of Music at the University of Chicago, where she is also director of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billy Childs</span> American jazz pianist, arranger and conductor (born 1957)

William Edward Childs is an American composer, jazz pianist, arranger and conductor from Los Angeles, California, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenneth Fuchs</span> Musical artist

Kenneth Daniel Fuchs is a Grammy Award-winning American composer. He currently serves as Professor of Music Composition at the University of Connecticut in Storrs.

Paul Cohen is an American saxophonist. He is active as a performer, teacher, historian, musicologist, and author in areas related to saxophone.

Bruce Adolphe is a composer, music scholar, the author of several books on music, and pianist. He is currently Resident Lecturer and Director of Family Concerts of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, where he has been a key figure since 1992. Adolphe performs his weekly "Piano Puzzler" segment on the nationally broadcast Performance Today classical music radio program hosted by Fred Child. "Piano Puzzler" was on National Public Radio starting in 2002, and is now on American Public Media. The program is also available as a podcast and from iTunes. Mr. Adolphe was also founding artistic director of Off the Hook Arts Festival, an interdisciplinary festival combining music, science, and visual arts, based in Fort Collins, Colorado, from 2010 to 2022.

James Crabb is a Scottish classical accordion player.

David C. Sampson is an American contemporary classical composer.

Imani Winds is an American wind quintet based in New York City, United States. The group was founded by flutist Valerie Coleman in 1997 and is known for its adventurous and diverse programming, which includes both established and newly composed works. The word Imani means "faith" in Swahili. They are also active commissioners of new music with the intent of introducing more diverse composers to the wind quintet repertoire.

Gabriela Lena Frank is an American pianist and composer of contemporary classical music.

Anna Clyne is an English composer, now resident in New York City, US. She has worked in both acoustic music and electroacoustic music.

Valerie Coleman is an American composer and flutist as well as the creator of the wind quintet Imani Winds. Coleman is a distinguished artist of the century who was named Performance Today's 2020 Classical Woman of the year and was listed as “one of the Top 35 Women Composers” in the Washington Post. In 2019, Coleman's orchestral work, Umoja, Anthem for Unity, was commissioned and premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra. Coleman's Umoja is the first classical work by a living African American woman that the Philadelphia Orchestra has performed.

Kerry Turner is an American composer and horn player. Turner is a recognized name in the horn and brass industry. Turner’s major ensembles with whom he performs include the American Horn Quartet, the Virtuoso Horn Duo, and the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra. Turner has performed internationally as a soloist and clinician. Turner also sings tenor in a semi-professional octet.

Jessie Montgomery is an American composer, chamber musician, and music educator. Her compositions focus on the vernacular, improvisation, language, and social justice.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Toyin Spellman-Diaz | Mannes School of Music". www.newschool.edu. Retrieved 2024-03-28.
  2. 1 2 DeLorenzo, Lisa C. (2012). "Missing Faces from the Orchestra". Music Educators Journal. 98 (4): 39–46. doi:10.1177/0027432112443263. ISSN   0027-4321.
  3. "Toyin Spellman-Diaz – CMA 2024 National Conference" . Retrieved 2024-04-02.
  4. "Imani Winds | Artist | GRAMMY.com". grammy.com. Retrieved 2024-05-05.
  5. Westbrook, Perer (December 2008). "Valerie Coleman: Revitalizing the Woodwind Quintet" (PDF). The New York Flute Club Newsletter.
  6. 1 2 3 "About". Imani Winds. Retrieved 2024-04-13.