Hi. My friends at Andover HS in Michigan have pushed me to present a recital. It's nothing real formal, but I'd like them to have some background information on what I am doing (90% of the audience has never seen a marimba before).

Anyway, I'm preparing this on about a week's notice, so if you've got any information on Stout's "Two Mexican Dances," Rosauro's Prelude No. 1, Musser's Etude in C (as an encore), or the Carter "Eight Pieces for Timpani," I could really use some help on the program notes. I'm also planning on demonstrating some timp and xylo excerpts accompanied by tape, so the students get a beter idea of what we percussionists do. In addition, I'll type up a brief history of timpani and marimba.

Any other suggestions on what to do are appreciated as well.

Dan Karas
DKCOMPDRUM@aol.com

Just a little bit of information on The Two Mexican Dances-Stout himself told me that he originally put the first of the two dances in a book of etudes that he was writing. His teacher at the time, Warren Benson, said that the piece that would eventually become dance no. 1 was so different and unique, that Stout should write a second piece in a similar style and get the two published as one.

You can get program notes and general information about any of my compositions from my website at gordonstout.net.