She blows...
Even via phone from Manhattan to my desk in DC, I can see Toyin’s face radiating as she recalls falling in love with the oboe and the orchestra. Years ago, there was a conductor at the DC Youth Orchestra, who, every time it rained would have us play an improvised storm in diminished chords, with the timpani as the thunder. I thought it was the coolest thing ever.”
At age 11, she was hooked.
DC has nurtured many talented musicians through the years, notably Marvin Gaye and Duke Ellington. Rising in renown is a family friend, Toyin Spellman, the oboist for five piece wind ensemble, Imani Winds. Coming off of a month vacation (“inertia’s a …”) and a music-filled wedding I attended before going to Montreal, we chatted about her early music life in Chocolate City.
"I always tell people," she says seriously, "DC was a terrific place to grow up. It’s gets a bad rap as a place that’s very dangerous. There are many different inexpensive ways of expressing yourself… I think it’s so important to have that stuff available to all children.”
Fortunately, she and I grew up during the heyday of the DC Youth Orchestra, where Toyin and I met through her sister (and my childhood friend) Kaji. Toyin’s father, who worked for the National Endowment for the Arts, had come across DCYOP’s grant application, and decided it was the program for his daughter, who was already taking piano lessons.
Originally, and I did not know this until recently, Toyin auditioned to play the flute, a popular choice. How many girls fell for its light melodies and dainty perch of the lips on the mouthpiece? But with so many flutists, her chances of getting solos were pretty slim. Toyin noticed the oboe soloists were far fewer and “really bad.” The oboe would be her best shot to shine.
“Along the way,” she laughs, “I grew to love the oboe but at first it was all about me being a star.” This is hard for me to imagine, since I know Toying to be as humble as she is talented.
With DCYOP, Toyin traveled to Korea, and the former USSR, and realized how lucky she was as an American to have access to musical instruments, and to music. But she said her Asian colleagues played music with whatever they had. “It doesn’t matter if you don’t have access to materials. You’re going to find a way to make music if it’s inside of you.”
The National Symphony Orchestra Youth Fellowship was really helpful, too. Simply put, it taught Toyin how to play her instrument. "It was a great student vocational education experience,” she explained, with free lessons, invitations to sit in on rehearsals, and occasional performances with the orchestra.
Along the way, private teacher and freelance musician Brother Ah schooled her on being a professional Black musician: be nice, be sweet, and show up on time. As well, be aware of racism, he told her. As the first black French horn player for the Metropolitan Opera, he suffered discrimination so scathing that he returned to Washington to teach music and play in a world band.
With training from DCYO and NSO, Toyin left DC for Oberlin College. She misses not being part of the DC music scene, having played in various parts of the country before settling in New York.
But it’s clear she does not regret her choice from flute to oboe. “If I had stayed with the flute, I probably would’ve been among the thousands of flute players” trying to get gigs. “And I wouldn’t be a part of this great ensemble, Imani Winds, which was started by a flute player.”
Imani Winds last performed in the DC area at the Strathmore Arts Center.
At age 11, she was hooked.
DC has nurtured many talented musicians through the years, notably Marvin Gaye and Duke Ellington. Rising in renown is a family friend, Toyin Spellman, the oboist for five piece wind ensemble, Imani Winds. Coming off of a month vacation (“inertia’s a …”) and a music-filled wedding I attended before going to Montreal, we chatted about her early music life in Chocolate City.
"I always tell people," she says seriously, "DC was a terrific place to grow up. It’s gets a bad rap as a place that’s very dangerous. There are many different inexpensive ways of expressing yourself… I think it’s so important to have that stuff available to all children.”
Fortunately, she and I grew up during the heyday of the DC Youth Orchestra, where Toyin and I met through her sister (and my childhood friend) Kaji. Toyin’s father, who worked for the National Endowment for the Arts, had come across DCYOP’s grant application, and decided it was the program for his daughter, who was already taking piano lessons.
Originally, and I did not know this until recently, Toyin auditioned to play the flute, a popular choice. How many girls fell for its light melodies and dainty perch of the lips on the mouthpiece? But with so many flutists, her chances of getting solos were pretty slim. Toyin noticed the oboe soloists were far fewer and “really bad.” The oboe would be her best shot to shine.
“Along the way,” she laughs, “I grew to love the oboe but at first it was all about me being a star.” This is hard for me to imagine, since I know Toying to be as humble as she is talented.
With DCYOP, Toyin traveled to Korea, and the former USSR, and realized how lucky she was as an American to have access to musical instruments, and to music. But she said her Asian colleagues played music with whatever they had. “It doesn’t matter if you don’t have access to materials. You’re going to find a way to make music if it’s inside of you.”
The National Symphony Orchestra Youth Fellowship was really helpful, too. Simply put, it taught Toyin how to play her instrument. "It was a great student vocational education experience,” she explained, with free lessons, invitations to sit in on rehearsals, and occasional performances with the orchestra.
Along the way, private teacher and freelance musician Brother Ah schooled her on being a professional Black musician: be nice, be sweet, and show up on time. As well, be aware of racism, he told her. As the first black French horn player for the Metropolitan Opera, he suffered discrimination so scathing that he returned to Washington to teach music and play in a world band.
With training from DCYO and NSO, Toyin left DC for Oberlin College. She misses not being part of the DC music scene, having played in various parts of the country before settling in New York.
But it’s clear she does not regret her choice from flute to oboe. “If I had stayed with the flute, I probably would’ve been among the thousands of flute players” trying to get gigs. “And I wouldn’t be a part of this great ensemble, Imani Winds, which was started by a flute player.”
Imani Winds last performed in the DC area at the Strathmore Arts Center.
posted by Rhonda Henderson at 2:33 PM
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