There isn’t a lot of music written with young percussionists in mind. For decades, many percussionists, marimba players in particular, wrote their own music. I’ve never been inclined to compose, outside of singing silly songs to my dog. But over the fifteen-ish years I’ve been teaching, I’ve lamented the amount of music accessible to many of my students. So a few years ago, I set out on a project with the goal of expanding this type of repertoire.
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Grants and commissions do take time, however, which is why I’m very excited to finally be recording these new works in the coming months! Five pieces were written by :
Natalie Draper, https://www.nataliedraper.net/
Mike Laurello, https://www.michaellaurello.com/
Ian Power, https://ianpoweromg.bandcamp.com/
Cassie Weiland, https://cassiewieland.com/
Justin Rito, https://justinrito.com/
​I also made two arrangements that I will be recording, by Cory Wong and Joep Beving.

Funding from the Peabody Institute and York College of Pennsylvania helped make these commissions a reality. After touring the pieces earlier in the year, I will be recording them in October of 2024, and they will be released under the title "Last Dance." Thanks to everyone to helped make this happen, and with a bit of luck, this is only the start of things to come! I will be making some short videos before the recording itself is released later in the year, they can all be viewed below.

​Cassie Wieland
you left your shadow
Natalie Draper
​Three Miniature Processes, Movement I
Justin Rito
​two marimba solos
​Circle Back, Movement I
I had the pleasure of recording three great solos by Bart Quartier in 2016. They happen to fit the scope of this recording project quite well, so I have included them below.
Bart Quartier - Image
2. Cat-Nap
10. Fuzz
11. Teething
Project Abstract:
By artistic standards, percussion music is quite new. For this reason, percussionists lack a substantial body of repertoire, particularly music written for students or young performers. Percussionists for generations have tried to fill this void by writing their own music. While this is not necessarily bad, it has led to a large amount of music written by individuals who are not trained composers. My goal with the Percussion Pedagogy Project is to commission a diverse collection of composers, requesting they write five-minute pieces for solo marimba. The works themselves will be musically approachable by high schoolers and undergraduates, but still challenging enough to keep them engaged. Video recordings will then bolster the pieces within the percussion community, and have powerful impact on younger generations of performers.