Pedro Carneiro is one of the very few percussion players to have made an
international career as a soloist, and has established himself as one of the
world's foremost solo percussionists, performing regularly throughout
Europe, the Far East, and the USA.

Although still in his mid-twenties, Pedro Carneiro's artistry is well known
to audiences throughout the globe. His highly acclaimed performances include
appearances with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, London Mozart Players,
Portuguese Symphony, Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid, Orquestra Sinfonica
do Estado de Sao Paulo, Tampere Philharmonic, Gavle Symphony Orchestra and
the Estonian National Symphony, to name but a few.

A frequent recitalist and chamber musician, he has also appeared at
important venues and festivals, such as Chicago's Grant Park Festival,
London's Queen Elizabeth Hall and BBC Proms, Capital Theatre in Beijing and
the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts, performing with artists
such as the Chilingirian Quartet and Elisabeth Chojnacka.

His website can be found on the internet at www.pedrocarneiro.com.

(Added 1999.6.22, Updated 2001.1.4, Updated 2003.7.19)

Born 1978, Mr. Condon is a graduate of the New England Conservatory in Boston where he studied with marimba artist Nancy Zeltzman, and Boston Symphony Percussionists Frank Epstein and Will Hudgins. He won the 1999 NEC solo concerto competition and performed the Paul Creston Concertino with the NEC Symphony Orchestra. He is also a recipient of the Louisville Orchestra's Young Artist Soloist Prize. Currently, he is attending a Master's program at Northwestern University while studying with Michael Burritt and Chicago Symphony member James Ross. (Added 2001.7.7)

Dr. Stephen Crawford is a marimba performer and conductor in Texas. He is the Director of Bands and Percussion Studies at University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, TX. He holds degrees from Minot State University (ND), University of Northern Iowa, and the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music. He has studied marimba with Mike Blake, Randy Hogancamp and Laurence Kaptain and has taken masterclasses with Leigh Howard Stevens and Dave Samuels.

Along with his marimba performance, Crawford is the principal percussionist with the Temple Symphony Orchestra, and music director/founder of the Ritmo y Mas Percussion Group. Crawford is in constant demand as percussion performer, clinician, and guest conductor having performed throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Ireland. He is a recipient of a Texas Percussive Arts Society Performance Grant and is the host of the Central Texas Percussion Festival held annually in February. Dr. Crawford represents the Ross Mallet Instrument Company as performing artist and clinician, and is the author of "Building a Better Percussion Section: Methods and Motivation" (published by Ross/Jupiter Education Services) and has appeared as a clinician at the Kentucky MEA, the South Carolina MEA, the North Dakota Day of Percussion, and the Concordia University Day of Percussion in Nebraska. His marimba compositions are available through HoneyRock Publishing.
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Dr. Stephen Crawford
Director of Bands & Percussion Studies
University of Mary Hardin-Baylor
900 College St. Box 8012 Belton, TX 76513
Ph: 254.295.4618 Email: scrawford@umhb.edu
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(Modified 2001.7.7)

Rich Dart is currently a freelance percussionist living on the southernConnecticut shore. He performs solo marimba recitals on a regularbasis. He is a graduate from Keene State College in New Hampsire where he studied under Bill Hanley and John Kelley. He has also studied under Ernest Centoscudi, David Smith, and Al Lepak. He is currently studying with reknowned marimbist, Nancy Zeltsman. He has given masterclasses throughout the state of Connecticut. He is currently performing as part of the critically acclaimed duo, Anne Donohue and Rich Dart as well as performing with the Meridan Symphony and Wallingford Symphony where he served as principal percussionist. Rich is also known for performing with many pop, rock, and jazz groups. He currently teaches at his home studio in Clinton, Connecticut, as well as many area schools. (Added 1999.4.11)

Mark Ford is the coordinator of percussion activities at The University of North Texas in Denton, Texas. A marimba specialist, Ford has premiered a variety of new works for solo marimba and regularly performs concerts and clinics around the country. He has been a featured performer/clinician at music conventions such as the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, The College Band Director's National Conference, the National MENC Convention, the Mid-West Band Directors Conference and Brazil's International Music Festival. Mark's latest CD, Motion Beyond, was released by AUR in November of 2001 featuring David Maslanka's Variations on Lost Love, Daniel McCarthy's Chamber Symphony No. 1 for Marimba and Winds, Lynn Glassock's Off Axis, as well as his own compositions Afta-Stuba! and Motion Beyond. Percussive Notes CD review of Motion Beyond stated that "Ford's stylistic interpretation is unquestionably among the world's finest solo musicians." His first marimba solo compact disc in 1996, Polaris, received excellent reviews from music publications including The Instrumentalist which stated Ford's performance is "superb and Ford's compositional style is equally outstanding." Other CDs by Mark Ford include Athletic Conveyances: Music for Tuba and Percussion, with Jeff Jarvis.

As a composer Mark Ford has written several popular works for solo marimba and percussion ensemble including Head Talk, Polaris, Motion Beyond, Stubernic, Afta-Stuba!, One-Eyed Jacks, and Standup Shadow. His compositions have been performed at universities and concert halls throughout the world including the Taipei International Percussion Convention, The Eastman School of Music and PAS International Conventions.

Mark serves on the Executive Board of the Percussive Arts Society as president-elect. An author of numerous percussion pedagogy articles, Ford served ten years as associate editor for the PAS publication, Percussive Notes. Mark Ford represents the Pearl Corporation of America, The Zildjian Company and Innovative Percussion as performing artist and clinician.
(Added 1998.12.31,modified 2002.3.3)

Mutsuko Fujii, a percusionist, a marimbist, and a Sanukite player (Sanukaite is a marimba like instrument made of a type of stone called Sanukite), graduated Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku in 1970 and since then, she has been actively playing as a percussionist as well as a solo and duo marimba player. Her duo group (Fujii/Kikuchi Duo : Kikuchi=Tomoko Kusakari) commisioned over 40 peices of works, and is slated to have created "new sound" for the marimba duo. Since 1985, her solo activity gained momentum and this resulted in premiering many well known pieces like Keiko Abe's Prism Rhapsody. Naturally, she appeared in TV and Radio many times. She is also a composer and many works are published.

On the academic side, she teaches at Senzoku Gakuen University.

She also spend a lot of effort for music education of children, and is the Chiar of All Japan Children's Education League.(Added 1999.7.12)

Gergely Nagy, Yamaha marimba artist, was born in 1974, in Miskolc, Hungary, as a third child of a musician couple. He started his percussion studies at the age of 14 with an excellent Polish teacher, in Thessaloniki, Greece.

He graduated in the Music College in Karlsruhe and in the Music Academy in Stuttgart. He specialized to marimba in those years. In 2000 for the invitation of Prof. Abe Keiko, world famous marimba artist, he spent 1 year in Tokyo as a scholar. Today he is teacher in the Music School of Stuttgart.

Gergely Nagy has concerts regularly in European countries (France, Germany, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary) and his name is known in Egypt and Japan as well. (Added 2004.9.5)

Greg Giannascoli was top prize winner of the 1997 Patrons of Wisdom international young artist competition held in Toronto, Canada. He has also won a grant for a custom marimba from the Philadelphia Music Foundation, the National Music Teachers Competition, the Montpeliar Cultural Arts Society Recital Competition, and others. Greg has studied with William Moersch, Dean Witten, Donald Bick, and Leigh Stevens. He has also had coachings with Gordon Stout, Nancy Zeltsman, and Machiko Takahashi. Greg performs exclusively on the Yamaha 6000 and uses Innovative Percussion Mallets. He represents the Percussion Marketing Council, which supplies matching funds for his educational appearances. He is a faculty member at Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ. Reviews of Greg's performances include: "Here was music played so well it would capture and hold anybody's attention indefinitely."-Classical New Jersey, "With great mastery and two mallets in each hand Giannascoli gave a true lesson with what can be done with that singular instrument."-The National of Mexico City, Reviews of his first CD 'Concertino' : "...elegantly phrased and sensitively performed...sails confidently through the most challenging technical passages."-Percussive Notes. Greg's second CD 'Velocities' will be out summer 1999. (Added 1999.6.21)

Check out her web site to see all the current informatin about this famous percussionist. She is a pupil of Keiko Abe.