MacRimba Marimba Ensemble

MacRimba is the name of a marimba ensemble class at the MacPhail Center for Music in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. The group was formed over ten years ago and then took a break for a number of years until 2008 when the MacPhail Center opened in their new state-of-the-art facility. I have been a member of MacRimba since 2008 and have thoroughly enjoyed having a additional opportunity to perform on this wonderful instrument.

Last semester I had the opportunity to play the lead xylophone solo for “Stars and Stripes Forever”. This was pretty challenging for a 2-mallet solo and has the added issue of everyone knowing the melody so any wrong note is easy to spot. One other thing to note is that the Marimba Festival Orchestra (a very exciting event where over 100 marimbists were on the stage at the same time) played this piece on their Marimba Festival Orchestra CD. Bob Becker played the xylophone solo for that event. I hope this idea of a mass marimba concert happens again. As long as it is in the United States, I will drive my car to be a part of it.

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