Later today at the annual PASIC 2010 festival there will be 2 new compositions that I am thrilled to be a sponsor for. At 3pm Woods Walker by Lynn Job will premiere and at 4pm Groundlines by John Serry will premiere! Sorry I cannot attend PASIC this year but I look forward to hearing about these pieces in the comments section!
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.
A new percussion/marimba resource has been added to the Internet recently. That resource is the website http://www.drumchattr.com.
This site is the brainchild of Thomas Burritt, Shane Griffin and Dave Gerhart. More information about their story can be found at their About Page.
It has only been a month or so since they have been live and already the quality of content is pretty amazing. There is a podcast where the hosts talk amongst themselves and cover topics from the forums. They also interview famous percussionists like Peter Erskine, and Paul Rennick, and others.
Sites like the Percussive Arts Society already have percussion forums for discussion and I don’t believe it is the intent of DrumChattr to replace that. But this does give another place to discuss specific topics from graduate auditions to being a professional. They also post high quality percussion performance videos.
I have added this site to my RSS feed and will be visiting frequently and I encourage you to do so as well. If I think of a really good idea, maybe I will even contribute an article in the future!
First of all congratulations to the Minnesota Twins for making the playoffs and for getting home field advantage in the division series against the Yankees! This series will come down to which team has better pitching in my opinion and I am excited for it to start. Now on to the post.
I am very excited about the other marimba bloggers out there and one of them is Charlie over at http://www.marimbalogy.com. He has done some great episodes about the Burton grip recently as well as a number of other great episodes.
Charlie recently posted the sight reading of the week for marimba and I couldn’t resist trying it. Remember the purpose of this was to sight read this without any practice at all. Here is my performance:
So there are wrong notes and tempo issues but for the first attempt I was happy with the fact that it is mostly right. I was also able to think about the crescendo and some accents. I consider myself pretty bad at sight reading so I am happy for the challenge. Thanks again to Charlie for writing this piece and posting it!
The following text is from Hilari Mari, the director of the PercuFest International Percussion Festival.
Dearests all friends,
A huge pleasure to announce and confirm the last concert at BaKetes International Percussion Festival 5th. Edition with the Conservatorio Superior de Música “Oscar Esplá” of Alicante, Spain Alumni Percussion Group under artistic director professor Joan Soriano. This will be the first time that the Festival welcomes very high level students to perform. This is to certify our best commitment with the future of the percussion art in Spain by promoting and motivating the percussion students who will become the next generation of spanish professional performers.
Also will take place the 2nd. BaKetes NP Drums Snare Drum Competition with a very special jury: the greatest orchestral percussionists Josep Furió & Francisco Inglés. Also to express our wish to share this percussion events with all of you that maybe are around Benetússer at this time and of course to welcome you to enjoy this fantastic concert. To promote the event, all will be FREE. We expect you!
Planning:
12 Junio 2010
June 12th. 2010
17:30 h.
Concurso Nacional de Caja BaKetes NP Drums – Remo Spain, Benetússer – Valencia – Spain
BaKetes NP Drums – Remo Spain Snare Drum Competition, Benetússer – Valencia – Spain
20 h. Concert
Grupo del Aula de Percusión del Conservatorio Superior de Música “Óscar Esplá” de Alicante, Spain
Programme
I Parte
Humet, Ramón (1968)……………………………………………..…………Mantra II (2002)
Erkoreka, Gabriel (1969)…………………………………………………………Fauve (2003)
Giner, Bruno (1960)………………………………………..……….Images de Peaux (1996)
Solista: Joan Soriano
II Parte
Humet, Ramón (1968)…………………………..……………………….…….Nkunga (2000)
Taïra, Yoshihisa (1937-2005)……………………………..………….…Hierophonie (1974)
Intérpretes del concierto: Conrado Moya Sánchez, David Nadal Bonet, Héctor Castelló Sánchez, Jorge Pons Gil, Lluís Martínez Esbrí, Ramón Llopis Ferrer y Sergio Juan Gironés.
Director: Joan Soriano Morales
Todo ello en:
All will be in:
Centre Cultural “El Molí”
C/. del Molí, 30
46910 Benetússer, València, España
+ INFO.-
http://www.benetusser.net/noticia.php?id=155
http://www.npdrums.com
Moltíssimes gràcies!!
¡Muchísimas gracias!
Thanks a lot
Salut!!
¡Salud!
All the best!
Hilari Marí
Director, PercuFest IX FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE PERCUSIÓN, La Font de la Figuera – Valencia – España www.PercuFest.com
Artistic director, PercuFest 9th. INTERNATIONAL PERCUSSION FESTIVAL, La Font de la Figuera – Valencia – Spain
Asesor artístico, BaKetes V Festival Internacional de Percusión, Benetússer – Valencia – España www.benetusser.net
Artistic advisor, BaKetes 5th. International Percussion Festival, Benetússer – Valencia – Spain
Director Artístico, Concurso Nacional de Caja BaKetes NP Drums – Remo Spain, Benetússer – Valencia – Spain
Artistic Director, BaKetes NP Drums – Remo Spain Snare Drum Competition, Benetússer – Valencia – Spain
Composer Lynn Job has written a new marimba + electronics piece entitled “Woods Walker”. This piece will be performed at PASIC 2010 this year in Indianapolis, Indiana by Dr. Aaron Ragsdale. I just learned that this commission is seeking 5 more marimbists to donate to the commission. I have recently joined this commission myself after reviewing the sample pages from the score.
The great thing about this particular commission is the number of things that you get for participating:
Your name on the score, a copy of the full score, a separate marimba part, a performance CD (stage ready), a Demo CD, 2 year exclusive ability to perform the work, free publicity for life and a number of other gifts.
For more information please visit the commission web site for more details. Time is running out on joining (they want to close the commission this summer) so move fast! This could be a great graduation present (or in my case a Father’s Day present) for your favorite marimbist!
The Marimba One Facebook page has a number of other great photos from the event that you can view at the following links:
Beverley Johnston
Valerie Naranjo
Svet Stoyanov
Ivana Bilic
Ji-Hye Jung
Javier Nandayapa
Nebojsa Zivkovic and Jeff Sass
Mark Ford, Jeff Sass and Momoko Kamiya
Marimba Nandayapa and Jeff Sass
Fred and Carolyn from Canada and Jeff Sass
My Marimba One at the St. Paul Cathedral
The International Summer Academy Salzburg Marimba and Percussion Masterclass will be held July 18-July 31, 2010 in Salzburg.
This year Peter Sadlo and Bogdan Bacanu will be the guest faculty.
For more information about this event please visit the Facebook event page.
Ivana Bilic will be hosting the 3rd edition of her Marimba Week at Samobor Croatia this September 24-29th, 2010. This year the festival will feature Ivana Bilic and guest artists Dane Richason and Pius Cheung.
Besides the masterclasses, drumming circles, private lessons and chamber music, there will be three concerts:
– Participants’ concert,
– Dane Richeson (marimba, percussion) concert with guest artists Ivana Bilic (marimba and vibes), Elvis Penava (jazz guitar), Goran Rukavina (bass), Davor Dedic (piano), Samobor strings – programme: premiere of Julie Spencer: Timeless river – new work for vibes, marimba and strings; Piazzola Tango Suite, some jazz standards, a Fred Sturm and Bobby McFerrin piece Rajasthan, improvised percussion solos…
– Pius Cheung concert (marimba) with guest artists Ivana Bilic (marimba), Dane Richeson (percussion). – programme – Cheung, Schoenberg, Bach.
This event is sponsored by Yamaha and Marimba One.
The following PDF file has all of the details and contact information as well as the festival web site. You need to register by September 10, 2010. For more information contact Goran Gorse at gorse [dot] goran [at] gmail [dot] com.
The Marimba 2010 International Festival and Conference was covered by a number of press outlets. Thanks to Fernando Meza for compiling this list and allowing me to share it.
Wall Street Journal “Ay, Marimba”
Marimba One – Press Release “Twin Cities to Host World Marimba Festival”
Star Tribune “Marimba meets Mahler at Orchestra Hall”
Minnesota Public Radio “All Things Considered” (Podcast) and article – “The biggest marimba event ever unfolds in Minnesota”
3 Minute Egg – “More Marimba: Stephen Paulus”
3 Minute Egg – “More Marimba Mary Ellen Childs”
Jupiter Band Instruments article on Marimba 2010 featuring Casey Cangelosi and Janus Percussion (link added here 7/26/2010)
VocalEssence.org – Video Performance of Visions (world premiere by Stephen Paulus)
Ivana Bilic is performing on my Marimba One for this concert.