Category Archives: MacRimba

MacRimba marimba ensemble at MacPhail

MacRimba Performance at MacPhail School of Music

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The MacPhail School of Music‘s MacRimba marimba ensemble performed an informal concert on November 14th. The concert featured the following pieces:

“Antonio Vivaldi Presto from Concerto Summer Op. 8 No 2. RV315” arranged by Aaron Williams

“Ancient Dances of Peten” arranged by Laurence Kaptain

“Three Concert Pieces for Eight Hands on Two Marimbas” by Earl Hatch edited by Robert Schietroma

“Spanish Dance” by E. Granados arranged Ron Fink

“Allegro from Quartett in C – KV 157” by W.A. Mozart Arranged by Lynn Glassock

Each semester that the MacRimba class performs we continue to increase the level of difficulty on the selections while still keeping a primary focus of having fun playing the marimba.

MacRimba Marimba Ensemble

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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.