I'm currently in the process of a large pedagogy project that I'm quite excited about! It's aptly titled The Percussion Pedagogy Project and over the past few months, I've contacted numerous composers requesting they write marimba and percussion music for younger performers. This is an aspect of our repertoire that is severely lacking, and I'm hoping to add a substantial amount of music within the next few years.
Commissioning takes time, and at the moment, several composers are writing pieces. But as more news develops and pieces get written, I will update this portion of the website. In the meantime, a few videos I recorded for Vic Firth's Marimba Literature Library are below, along with a more formal abstract for the project itself.
Bart Quartier - Image
2. Cat-Nap
10. Fuzz
11. Teething
Percussion Pedagogy 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.