Marimba One has launched a new website focused on sound. The new site shows the differences between the resonators and also now links to video clips of the sound of the different mallets that Marimba One makes.

I hope to see in the future video examples of the sound of the different keyboard voicing choices (how is the sound different between Premium, Enhanced, Traditional, and Educational) as well.

I always love the artist quotes on the site, but the recent one by Danny Elfman is great:

A new Kickstarter! project has started to send the Rosewood Marimba Band to Puerto Rico. One of my friends Kyle-Maxwell-Doherty is a member of the marimba band. The awards you get for helping them are very reasonable (for the $15 donation you get a CD). For more information head directly to their Kickstarter! page. Please pledge by July 31st to help them!

Ney Rosauro and Jeff Moore will host the 5th annual summer camp at the University of Central Florida from July 17th to the 23rd. Other faculty include Dr. John Parks and Brian Potts.

More information can be found at the camp’s website.

There is a great project underway at Kickstarter called “Compose. Perform. Inspire. New Voices in Percussion Music.” Kickstarter is a program that attempts to get funding for a project, in this case new percussion compositions, and only if the minimum funds are pledged does the project happen.

This one is started by the Evolution Percussion Duo and has four great composers: Casey Cangelosi, Dave Hall, Baljinder Sekhon, and David Skidmore writing compositions.

Jake and Maria have more information at the Kistarter site. They are within $600 of their goal with 7 days left to meet it. Please join me by donating so the whole percussion community receives some new compositions.

 Here is a photo of my new DeMorrow 4.3 octave at Faith Lutheran Church.

DeMorrow Marimba

Charlie at marimbalogy.com has released episode 10 of his marimba video blog series. He walks you through unpacking a 5-octave Marimba One and reviews the various features of the instrument.

You can see the episode at marimbalogy.com right now.

Ney Rosauro will be the guest artist at the MacPhail Center for Music “Percussion Showcase” tomorrow 2/26/2011 from 1-5pm. Area high school ensembles will be performing as well as Ney himself.

The event is free for MacPhail students and costs $5 for the general public. For more information see the following brochure.

Gordon Stout was interviewed by the DrumChattr crew as he was attending this years PASIC.

While answering one of the questions that I submitted for the interview he had a very timely announcement about next year’s PASIC.

The Marimba Orchestra will return to PASIC 2011. Gordon Stout will be conducting the group and also writing a brand new piece for the event! It will be a 50 minute concert comprised of both college students and “pros” performing together. I cannot wait to hear more information about this event.

The other question I asked was about whether or not Gordon will write a book about his marimba experiences. He has already written Ideo Kinetics A Workbook for Marimba Technique but I feel like something between an autobiography and a North American marimba history would be a success. Something similar to Rebecca Kite’s book “Keiko Abe-A Virtuosic Life: Her Musical Career and the Evolution of the Concert Marimba“.

Note to all of the readers: If you collaborate over at DrumChattr you can have your questions answered by the guests on the podcast.

To listen to the entire podcast, go to iTunes and search for DrumChattr or go directly to this link on their site.

The amaAmbush marimba group performed at the “World Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child” in Sweden. You can see their performance online. They are the group playing primarily at the beginning of the event. It is great to see the marimba get this much international attention at a large event.