Ivan Trevino and Michael Burritt perform Ivan’s marimba duo Catching Shadows. While some might know the percussion sextet version, Catching Shadows was actually first written as a marimba duo for Michael and Ivan to perform together.
Ivan and Michael both perform on Malletech instruments and mallets, and sheet music for Catching Shadows is available at IvanDrums.com.
Moon Chasers a marimba solo written by Mark Ford. The music is about two people in love who are separated over a long distance and connected only by the moon. The work, dedicated to Mark’s wife Ewelina, will serve as the musical foundation for the first movement of an upcoming concerto.
You’re the voice of a dream I had
You’re the voice and I’m so glad
You’re the weight of a dream of a life come true
There’s no denying
I sometimes run and chase the moon
I just can
I sometimes run and chase the views
And dream of you
from “Dreamer” by Toni Childs
Last night, I was fortunate to be at the opening concert of the Zeltsman Marimba Festival at Rutgers University. The second half of the concert featured the reunion of Marimbolin, a marimba/violin duo featuring marimbist Nancy Zeltsman and violinist Sharan Leventhal. They played 4 pieces and the music they created was breathtaking and performed with a high level of musicality. I hope this was not the last time we hear from Marimbolin. (more…)
Bloom Suite by Elliot Cole performed by Andrew Bliss. Filmed in the Sandra G. Powell Recital Hall at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, TN on January 24th, 2015. Video and Audio by Evan Chapman.
To purchase the sheet music, click here.
This is by far one of my favorite marimba pieces. It is a beautiful composition and setting of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s Allah Mohammad Char Yaar. This video features Benjamin Charles performing Alejandro Viñao’s Khan Variations. This was recorded at Smith Memorial Hall, University of Illinois. I like how Benjamin uses the tools on YouTube to mark the start of the variations and key points in the piece.
There are many recordings of this piece. Another favorite would be by Ian Rosenbaum.
Third Coast Percussion member Owen Clayton Condon writes music influenced by minimalism, electronica and taiko drumming. His newest piece, Fractalia, written for Third Coast Percussion in 2011, is a sonic celebration of fractals, geometric shapes whose parts are each a reduced-size copy of the whole (derived from the Latin fractus, meaning “broken”).
The kaleidoscopic fractured melodies within Fractalia are created by passing a repeated figure through four players in different registers of the marimba. Condon’s acoustic and electronic works, including Fractalia, have been featured as the soundtrack to video and light installations at Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Fallingwater” and Anish Kapoor’s “Cloud Gate,” the famous sculpture (affectionately referred to as “The Bean”) in Chicago’s Millennium Park.
Skype Lessons with Dr. Gerhart