Hi everyone!
Two weeks ago, I was at PASIC and had a great time! I spent my week at the Marimba One booth and had a chance to meet new people as well as old friends!
Our booth was great! We had three brand new marimbas that were in the booth for the convention and then given to their owners at the end of the show. It is always so much fun to unite the new instruments with their owners! Also we had the new mallet display which was so cool – one of each of the mallets is displayed so its easy for people to see the different lines. We also had our new mallet bags which totally sold out by the second day! We had a great team in the booth, including Ron Samuels, Nicole, Chad, Sabrina, myself and my student Joe Howe talking to people about our great instruments and mallets!
Many students came to the booth, and many old friends and new colleagues! I was so excited to see some of the students that I had made mallet recommendations for last year! Many people had new pieces that they were working on and looking for mallets to match with. Remember you can always email me or find me at one of the shows and get mallet advice for pieces!
I was so happy to get a chance to hang out with Marimba One artists Matthew Coley and his duo partner Ronni Wenzell, Tim Palmer from England, Rachel Zhang and Eriko Daimo. I feel so honored to be an artist among such amazing other artists with Marimba One! I also had some wonderful conversations with Nancy Zeltsman, David Johnson, Fernando Meza and William Moersch! What inspirational people!
I saw some great performances! I was particularly impressed with Morris Palter’s performance of Toucher by Vinko GLobokar. That piece is one that I love and have played many times, and I thought his performance of it was fantastic! He had some particularly good ideas for the interludes that I thought were really unique! I also thought Steve Schick was fantastic, as always. He is one of the greatest performers of percussion music I have ever seen, and his performances always inspire me! I was also really interested in what Pius Cheung had to say in his clinic about technique and musicianship. I loved his quote from other great musicians and I particularly liked his concepts of how music can change your perspective. I liked his new piece, Nocturne in F Major, and may try to get my hands on it for a future performance.
My whole studio from Southern Utah University attended PASIC and we continued our tradition of Dr Vartan treating them to dessert one night to talk about all they have seen. As we sat in the fancy back room at Shula’s Steakhouse in the Westin and feasted on key lime pie, cheesecake and seven layer chocolate cake, I got to hear all about what they thought of all the clinics and workshops they saw. Its a special tradition for us, and I hope to continue it every year to come!
Thanks for reading! Check back to see what is next in my musical adventures!
Lynn
