Hey folks. Im a public school band director/jazz drummer and marimba player. Im just gettin back into shape on the marimba and enjoying my Malletech 4.5 this summer.
I am about performance ready with the following repotoire and wanted to get input into the ordering of my selections.

I should say my audience will be general public, most if not all will be hearing the marimba for the first time. Some will be musically literate, studied, concertgoers. A lot will be going to a classical music concert for the first time.

I got these pieces together and want to perform them before I tackle some major works down the road.

A. What do you think of this order?
B. If I were to ADD ONE piece, what should it be..Im open to suggestions. It shouldnt be too hard..I dont have a lot of time to learn a major work.

1. Musser Etude Opus 6, #9 (maybe this should go last?)

2. Yellow After The Rain

3. Back E Major Partita
a. Gavotte and Rondo
b. Menuett 1 & Menuett 2
c. Prelude

4. Astral Dance

5. Mexican Dance #1

6. Mexican Dance #2

So there it is. Short and sweet. I dont want to shock a first time audience. I want it to be a compact little recital.

Ive also been asked to perform at a local college Music Ed class as an example of..."You don't have to have "Band Director Chops" just because you teach public school" so I think this will a nice little half- recital, class length program.

Thanks
Tom

I think that sounds like a great program, there's nothing there that an audience of non-percussionists won't be able to handle.
Which Musser etude is that (which key is it in)? Some of those etudes work best as an encore, but it could also be an opener.
If you wanted to open with it, adding another piece as an encore could work: you could do something flashy like a flight of the bumblebee, or something pretty like a nancy.
Only comment I'd say is maybe do the Bach in the correct order.

Good luck with the recital!

Hi Tom - for a general audience Yellow is good to start with...not too hard and will get you warmed up and the audience can relate to it. Then maybe I'd do the Bach, then Astral Dance , close with Mexican Dances and do the Musser B Maj. as an encore. This is only one man's opinion and you do what you feel most comfortable with. Nice rep. greg