The Classical Marimba League “accomplishes it’s mission through the promotion of new classical music composed by the most creative emerging talents in the arts today”.
One of the challenges that the marimba faces as a concert instrument is that most of the standard literature written for the marimba has been written in the last 60-70 years. That isn’t to say all of the marimba music is 20th century, but when you compare that to the violin or the piano, there is a large gap in marimba music written in the older classical styles.
In addition to Composition Competitions, there are semi-annual Marimba Artist Competitions to showcase both the new music as well as the talents of many marimbists.
April 1st and 2nd (tonight and tomorrow), at the University of Minnesota, there is a public concert featuring the Classical Marimba League. I contacted the host of the event Fernando Meza (University of Minnesota Associate Professor of Percussion and Director of Percussion Studies), to see what pieces will be performed. I also saw via Twitter that Nathan Daughtrey will be flying in for the event. I will post more as the event progresses. For now, here is the list of pieces that will be performed. Enjoy! I know that I will!
April 1st—–
See Ya Thursday – Steven Mackey
Adam Rappel, marimba
Marimba Dances – Ross Edwards
Brittany Piatz, marimba
Remembrance – Robert Schumann (arr. Stevens)
Eric Neseth, marimba
Winner, CML Classical category:
Minotaurus 4.3 – Leander Kaiser
Scotty Horey, marimba
Honorable Mention, CML 21st Century category:
ConcorDance – Jens Schliecker/Nils Rohwer
Adam Rappel, marimba
Leah Siltberg, piano
Winner, CML Romantic category:
Three European Folksongs – Kit Mills
I. French
II. English
III. Spanish
Jennifer Klukken, Brittany Piatz, Ethan Shervey, marimbas
April 2 —-
(3rd place winner)
Concerto for Marimba and Wind Ensemble (Mvt. II Cadenza, Fuga) –
Yiu-Kwong Chung
Dances of Earth and Fire – Peter Klatzow
Marimba d’Amore – Keiko Abe
Yun-Ju Chou, marimba
(2nd place winner)
Merlin – Andrew Thomas
HATO-OTO – Hirotake Kitakata (USA Premiere)
Hiromi Kamiya, marimba
(1st place winner)
Cameleon – Eric Sammut
Variations on Japanese Children’s Songs – Keiko Abe
Dr. Graddus ad Parnassum (from Children’s Corner Suite) – Claude Debussy
Yi-Chia Chen, marimba