I have a friend who just finished her first year in college as a music major. Her main focuses are voice and marimba; however, her school has no percussion instructor and she is having some trouble getting motivated on the marimba. I would like to get her a CD and some sheet music for her birthday. I have a musical background, but only in piano. I saw something about Momoko Kamiya on this site that looked interesting. Where can I get a recording of hers? Also, what is some good intermediate to hard level Japanese sheet music I could get ahold of? Thanks very much, and I think this is a great web site.

Hi.

Start with Keiko Abe. Her CD is easier to
get hold of, and it is always worthwile to
listen to the performance by the composer
herself. Keiko Abe's "Marimba Fantasy" is
probably a must have.

As to the music is concerned, I recommend
bunch of pieces by Keiko Abe, which could
go with the CD. Something like
the Dream of Cherry Blossom is very Japanese
and nice. It was published as a piece music
so you could get it alone. As the collection,
ISBN4-11-550100-6
ISBN4-916114-02-7
may be the good starting point.

Cheers,

Nat

Another very interesting CD is "Rhythm song" from Evelyn Glennie.
It does not only contain solo pieces for marimba, but also marimba pieces comped by orchestra. A very nice piece on it is Stout's "Mexican dance for marimba" (nr. 1 and 2). Sheet music is available at Studio 4 percussion.

Nico

hi chad,

try calling steve weiss and ask for randy, the librarian. he may be able to help. if this is your friends first big work and she likes japanese music may be Torse III by miyoshi. It is a great work in several short movements. it's one of the ifrst four mallet pieces that bill moersch uses with his college level students. a good piece of music for marimba, piano, and soprano is Sohmon III by minoru miki. It's available through the Japan Ferderation of Composers. greg