This is a very special episode and features one of my best friends, Jamie Wind Whitmarsh!
Jamie is a fabulous composer, percussionist, and human being. And, I am leading a Percussion Quartet Consortium with him as the composer. The work is entitled American Biomes and it is a full concert length work (40-50 minutes), written for percussion quartet (with limited instrumentation), and can be programed in its entirety or as individual movements.
I have commissioned Jamie a lot over the years because I, much like a lot of other university programs, have some incredibly talented students but limited rehearsal space and gear options. So, this piece is on the scale of a David Maslanka work but written for a quartet with limited instruments, i.e. one of each of the main keyboard instruments (marimba, vibes, glock, chimes, etc.), drums (toms, bd, snare drum, etc.), and found objects.
With the deadline to join the consortium coming up, I wanted to take a moment and highlight the project for those that might be interested in joining.
Here’s the overview and how to join:
- $200 buy in (can be split up however you want)
- $23 additional solos, duet, and ensemble pieces will be delivered to you via Dropbox
- Receive the piece by January 15th, 2021
- Join by contacting me at tommy.dobbs@uafs.edu or jwhitmarshmusic@gmail.com
I hope you enjoy this episode and check out some of Jamie’s work and his podcast.
Also, all the music you hear during the episode was taken from the American Biomes sketches, which was Jamie using the voice memo app to record himself playing piano and marimba . Also, there’s a short clip at the end (when Jamie is telling a funny story about me) that was used with permission of my good friend, Brian Nozny. Reach out to him to find out more about that piece.