What’s in a bassoon? For Monica Ellis, a ticket to see the world
When Mickey Mouse enchants a broom in Disney’s musical classic, “Fantasia,” that chipper, sprightly tune that accompanies the mop’s march? That’s the sound of a bassoon.
To some listeners, the bassoon is a signal for a musical comedy — composers used to cast them as such due to their steampunk, crazystraw shape and the fact that historically, early bassoons often sounded cartoonishly out of tune. To others, the bassoon’s timbre is the epitome of musical artistry, mysterious and muffled at times and keening and bright at others.
For Monica Ellis, a native of Pittsburgh’s Hill District, the bassoon signaled a ticket to the world, a path through high school, college, career, fame, travel and purpose.
Ms. Ellis is a professional bassoonist and a founding member of the electrifying ensemble Imani Winds, a group of five primarily African-American musicians dedicated to expanding the wind quintet repertoire to include new diverse voices and acting as role models on the international concert stage. The group has performed all around the U.S., Europe, China, Australia, Brazil and more. They’ve performed with jazz legend Wayne Shorter, and one of their albums was nominated for a Grammy in 2006.
Now 44, Ms. Ellis brings back coffee mugs from the more exotic places she’s traveled. A fellow musician described her as an IPA expert. She lives in Harlem with her 5-year-old son, but her mother still lives in the Hill District in the house that she built with Ms. Ellis’ father in 1980 on Ridgway Street.
“New York is the greatest city in the world, except for Pittsburgh, of course,” Ms. Ellis said in a recent sitdown in her Harlem abode. “Make sure you include that!”
From the Hill
Ms. Ellis is a product of Pittsburgh’s public education system. Her interest in music stemmed from and was stoked by her father, Clarence Oden, a saxophonist who played with Pittsburgh jazz legend Walt Harper and his band, All That Jazz.
“He had the proverbial day job working for Blue Cross Blue Shield, but music was his passion,” said Marlene Ellis, the bassoonist’s mother, communicating a fierce pride for the musical accomplishments of both her husband and daughter. “Imani has a following like rock stars do now. They played Carnegie Hall in New York recently — all women composers with the American Composers Orchestra — they hadn’t even played a note yet and there was just the biggest roar of applause.”
Marlene Ellis insisted that her daughter start her musical studies a year early during elementary school, which, according to retired Pittsburgh Public School music teacher Ken Merusi, was unusual. “Her mom wouldn’t take no for an answer, so I started Monica on clarinet,” Mr. Merusi said. “Second-graders aren’t very tall, so it almost sat on the floor.” Mr. Merusi rotated through several different schools in a week during his teaching days, including Madison Elementary, which closed in 2008.
“She’s a good player, she really is,” Mr. Merusi said. “And her group is good, too. Where she is and what she’s done does not surprise me in the least.”
Ms. Ellis later switched to bassoon and took lessons with former Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra bassoonist Mark Pancerev. She performed with the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra and attended Pittsburgh CAPA. She attended the Oberlin Conservatory near Cleveland and later The Juilliard School and the Manhattan School for Music. In 1997, she helped found Imani Winds, which takes its name from a Swahili word that means “faith.”
Ms. Ellis acts as the group’s road manager on tours. She’s warm and talkative — clearly good with people — and gestures expansively as she speaks, tearing up briefly while talking about her father. But what’s her playing like?
“In a word? Soulful,” said Imani’s horn player, Jeff Scott, who also composes from the ensemble. “She’s got the dynamic and sound range of three bassoonists in one. It’s unbelievable. She’s a big Prince and Stevie Wonder fan. But then she listens to Bach cantatas all the time — she’s got that wide of a palette. She likes using modern sound and modern interpretation for stuff written 300 years ago.”
Mr. Scott described one of Ms. Ellis’ playing ticks, how she leans her head in one direction and pulls her bassoon in the other.
“She’s just sort of feeling it sometimes,” he said. “She did this once at an elite presenting organization and her reed actually flew off the bassoon and into the lap of someone in the front of the audience. The guy handed it back, and she thanked him and just kept going. We were grooving too hard to stop.”
Imani’s future
Imani Winds earned its break at the Concert Artist Guild competition in 2001. Even though it didn’t win first prize, the guild’s president recognized the group’s talent and invited the wind players to be an educational residency ensemble.
To this day, Imani often plays concerts in libraries or other community spaces during its tours. The group’s ranks have shifted slightly; only three of the original five players remain.
“We still like to start by talking to audiences and connecting with them, which I think really shocks a lot of people,” Ms. Ellis said. “Immediately defenses go down and it’s more relaxed, and there’s an element of give and take.”
The group’s mission has brought it into regular contact with the Sphinx Organization, a well-known, Detroit-based organization dedicated to transforming lives through the power of diversity in the arts. No formal partnership exists yet, but Imani has performed previously with the Harlem String Quartet and looks forward to playing with the Catalyst Quartet in future seasons. The organizations are in early talks about creating a wind version of the annual Sphinx competition, which is limited to string players.
Imani is in residence at the University of Chicago as well as the Mannes School of Music in New York City, where the group holds an annual 10-day chamber music festival to assist participants with their musicianship and career development. Ms. Ellis said that Imani is also in the early stages of creating its own nonprofit foundation to assist with raising funding for the festival and for the group’s frequent commissions.
In July, Ms. Ellis came back home to make her debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at a community outreach concert at the Hill House. On Monday, she was back with Imani Winds to perform on the Chamber Music Pittsburgh series in Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland with a program showcasing a variety of composers and styles.
“As classical musicians, we practice so that every time we play something it’s exactly the same,” Ms. Ellis said. “Jazz musicians practice so that every time they play something it’s completely different. That’s why they practice, because they want to have the spark, the creativity. These worlds crash together for us.”
Jeremy Reynolds: jreynolds@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1634; twitter: @Reynolds_PG. Mr. Reynolds’ work at the Post-Gazette is supported by a grant from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Getty Foundation and Rubin Institute.