Dr. Annie Stevens recently came to Minneapolis on October 19 and held a master class for some of the MacPhail students. She is currently the Visiting Assistant Professor of Percussion at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, VA. She is part of the percussion duo Escape Ten and her and Andrea Venet have some very cool marimba duos at their website.

I especially like the new piece called 2+1 by Ivan Trevino. The YouTube video of this duet can be seen below. This piece is interesting in that one player stands behind the natural bars (normal playing position) and the other player stands behind the accidentals. Annie noted in her master class that this was to give schools a new duet to play without having to have 2 marimbas. The player who is on the accidental side of the marimba will now have larger reaches with their right hand and will need to think a little harder.

The master class was standing room only and it was great to see such a nice turnout for an event like this. Thanks to Dr. Stevens for stopping by!