I wrote Improvisations for Solo Marimba while I was a student of John Heiss at New England Conservatory. It was composed in Cambridge, Massachusetts and completed in April of 2008. The first movement, Taksim, was selected as a winner of the Zeltsman Marimba Festival New Music Composition Contest, and was subsequently published by Edition Peters in 2009. Taksim was also recorded for Bridge Records by Ivana Bilic.
Premiere Performance:
Brown Hall
New England Conservatory
Boston, Massachusetts
8 May 2008
Setsuko Kutsuno, marimba
Additional Performances of Taksim:
Harper Hall
Lawrence University
Appleton, Wisconsin
3 July 2009
Ivana Bilic, marimba
Lawrence Memorial Chapel
Lawrence University
Appleton, Wisconsin
5 July 2009
Ivana Bilic, marimba
Berk Recital Hall
Berklee College of Music
Boston, Massachusetts
26 October 2009
Sharon Raizer, marimba
Official Selection – Concours International de Marimba
Percussive Arts Society France Chapter / PerKumania
Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Paris, France
24-29 November 2009
Ducal Palace
Żagań, Poland
18 August 2010
Vivi Vassileva, marimba
Bryan Recital Hall
Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, Ohio
8 April 2011
Stephen Klunk, marimba
Regenstein Recital Hall
Northwestern University
Evanston, Illinois
23 February 2012
Philip McPeek, marimba
Ilhan Usmanbaş Hall
Istanbul Technical University MIAM
Istanbul, Turkey
1 December 2013
Koray Kaplan, marimba
Conservatorium van Amsterdam
Amsterdam, Netherlands
26 June 2015
Dominique Vleeshouwers, marimba
Oude Rechtbank
Eindhoven, Netherlands
6 September 2015
Dominique Vleeshouwers, marimba
Wattenbarger Auditorium
Tennessee Technological University
Cookeville, Tennessee
4 December 2019
Marco Schirripa, marimba
Celebrity Series of Boston at Home
Boston, Massachusetts
25 June 2020
Maria Finkelmeier, marimba
Bürgerhaus II
Schwabach, Germany
6 October 2021
Can Ünlüsoy, marimba
Irving Park Lutheran Church
Chicago, IL
24 April, 2022
Kyle Flens, marimba