Marimba greg Giannascoli- marimba and percussion artist Greg Giannascoli

Greg Giannascoli- Marimba and percussion artist Greg Giannascoli was a winner of the 2001 Artist International New York Recital / Young Artist Competition and was also top prizewinner of the 1997 Patrons of Wisdom International Young Artist Competition held in Toronto, Canada. He has won a grant for a custom marimba from the Philadelphia Music Foundation, the Aronfreed Solo Recital competition, the National Music Teachers Association Collegiate Artist Competition, the Montpelier Cultural Arts Society Recital Competition, and the South Orange Symphony, Rowan University, Rutgers University, and Virginia Commonwealth University concerto competitions. Greg received his DMA from Rutgers University where he studied with William Moersch, his MM from Virginia Commonwealth University where he studied with Donald Bick and his BM from Rowan University where he studied with Dean Witten.

Greg is now represented by Live on Stage, Inc. He will begin presenting marimba recitals under their auspices, throughout the US and Canada, in the 2010-11 season. Greg has performed as a soloist with orchestras and in recital throughout North America, Europe and Asia. He has performed recitals in Weil Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Theatro Juarez in Mexico, the Glenn Gould Studio in Canada and at the 2005 Percussive Arts Society International Convention. Greg’s performances have been presented on CBC and NPR radio and PBS TV. In the past few years Greg has premiered over 20 works.

Greg is a faculty member at the esteemed Juilliard Pre-College and is also the coordinator of the percussion department at New Jersey City University. He has presented master classes at some of the top music schools including the Juilliard School and The Manhattan School of Music. Greg performs exclusively on the Yamaha 6000 marimba and 2700 studio vibraphone, uses Vic Firth mallets and Sabian cymbals. Greg will be releasing his 5th solo CD, Prism Rhapsody, in 2009.

Reviews of Greg’s performances include: “Here is music played so well it would capture and hold anybody’s attention indefinitely.”-Classical New Jersey, “With great mastery and two mallets in each hand Giannascoli gave a true lesson with what can be done with this singular instrument.”-The National of Mexico City, “Creston’s Concertino…his performance was outstanding.”-Whit Magazine, “Giannascoli’s performance of Miyoshi’s works was nothing less than astonishing, both in terms of artistry and virtuosity…tremendous facility…startling display of clarity and precision.”-Splendid Music Magazine. Reviews of Greg’s first CD, ‘Concertino’, include: “...elegantly phrased and sensitively performed...sails confidently through the most challenging technical passages.”-Percussive Notes.

Keiko Abe- Born in Tokyo, Japan, Abe began playing the xylophone while in elementary school. She studied xylophone with Eiichi Asabuki in Tokyo. At age 13, she won an NHK talent contest and began performing professionally on live radio. She attended Tokyo Gakugei University where she completed a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Music Education. She began working in the Columbia Japan, NHK and other recording studios while in college.

In 1962, she and two friends (who were also students of Asabuki) founded the Xebec Marimba Trio, performing popular music, arrangements of folk songs and some of Abe's arrangements. They recorded more than seven albums between 1962 and 1966. During this period she had her own show on Japanese television, instructing schoolchildren in xylophone playing, as well as a radio show called "Good Morning Marimba". She also began her recording career with a bang, putting out 13 albums in a five-year span.

In 1963, the Yamaha Corporation sought Japanese marimba players to assist in the design of their new instruments; Keiko Abe was chosen for her original and clear ideas of the marimba sound and design, particularly her concept of how the marimba should be able to blend in ensembles, for example, moving away from the inconsistencies and lack of focus of folk percussion instruments. Her ideas for the desired sound of the instruments guided Yamaha's design, and in the 1970s began production. In addition, at her urging, the range of the new marimba was stretched from four octaves to five, which has become the standard for soloists. Abe has been closely associated with Yamaha ever since, and their first ever signature series of keyboard percussion mallets bears her name.

Her compositions, including "Michi", "Variations on Japanese Children's Songs", and "Dream of the Cherry Blossoms", have become standards of the marimba repertoire. Abe is active in promoting the development of literature for the marimba, not only by writing pieces herself, but also by commissioning works by other composers and encouraging young composers. She has added at least 70 compositions to the repertoire. She uses improvisation as an important element in developing her musical ideas which she then uses in her compositions.

In addition to her heavy composing, touring, and recording schedule, Abe has been a lecturer, then professor, at the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo since 1970. She was the first woman to be inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame in 1993.

She uses the YM-6000 Marimba made by Yamaha.

Her music is mainly published by Xebec Music Publishing and Schott, Japan.

Bogdan Bocanu- He has been professor of marimba at the famous Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz (Austria) starting when he was 23 and is thus the youngest professor of his kind, world-wide. He was given piano instruction at the age of five in Bucharest, his birthplace, and was already a percussionist with the George Enescu Bucharest Philharmonic at age 13. Bogdan Bácanu studied marimba at the Mozarteum University in his present hometown with his great mentor, Professor Peter Sadlo.

Since then, Bogdan Bácanu has given solo concerts and concertos with orchestra and ensembles, touring in Norway, Denmark, Holland, England, Germany, France, Spain, Romania, Cyprus, Greece, Japan, Korea, China, Australia, Canada, Turkey, Switzerland, Mexico and the United States. He has performed with well-known artists like Keiko Abe, Gidon Kremer and Peter Sadlo. In a variety of concert projects, he has collaborated with conductors like Dennis Russell Davies, Cristian Mandeal and Horia Andreescu, among others, and orchestras like the Bucharest Philharmonic and various radio symphony orchestras like the RSO Bucharest. Renowned, international awards and exuberant concert reviews from around the world have continued to attend his career as soloist and educator in equal measure.

A close partnership teams him up with Momoko Kamiya, the Japanese marimba player, in concerts, master classes and CD recordings.

He has been invited repeatedly to renowned music festivals such as the Biennale in Brisbane (Australia), the Princeton Marimba Festival, the Percussion Festival of Salonika, the Lockenhaus Music Festival, Voices of Percussion Vienna, World Marimba Festival of Osaka, 'Les museiques' Festival Basel/Switzerland, Salzburg Festival Inaugural Concert, 2nd International Marimba Competition 2004 in Belgium, 2005 in Slovenia, International Percussion Competition PENDIM in Plovdiv / Bulgaria, Zeltsman Marimba Festival in the USA, International Marimba Festival in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Mexico where he gave concerts to great critical acclaim.

Bogdan Bácanu is an lecturer at the International Summer Academy in Salzburg, and was guest professor at the Zeltsman Marimba Festival, USA, at the 4th International Marimba Festival 2004 in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Mexico and was invited by distinguished universities and festivals to give master classes in The Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland, Romania, Cypress, Greece, Japan, Australia, Turkey, Mexico as well as the USA.

As the artistic director of the Linz International Marimba Festival, he has created a regularly recurrent cultural event.

Due to the resounding, continual success of his festivals, he then founded the International Marimba Competition in Linz in 2006, featuring a prestigious jury. From 2009 on, the competition is triannually held in cooperation with the Mozarteum University and the Mozarteum Summer Academy in Salzburg.

Composers like John Thrower (Canada/Germany), Alexander Mullenbach (Luxembourg/Austria) and Emmanuel Sejourne (France) have written pieces and concertos dedicated to him which he has released in part on his CDs.

Bogdan Bácanu himself loves and respects the compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach. His greatest desire is to see the marimba established in the music world as a solo instrument. His arrangements of the Concertos BWV 1060 to BWV 1062 for harpsichord demonstrate his respect for the original composition by absolute adherence to the text, shown on his newest CD release, in which he shares the stage with “The Wave Quartet”, Peter Sadlo (conductor) and the Salzburg Baroque Orchestra. Even Baroque music specialists were enthusiastic in regards to the perfection and the rich sounds of the marimba in works by J.S. Bach. Further arrangements by Bácanu like the Chaconne in d-minor BWV 1004 and the Concertos for Harpsichord, BWV 1052, 1054 and 1056 have been released on CD and also as music scores with the Norwegian edition, NORSK.

Bogdan Bácanu performs exclusively on ADAMS Artist Classic Custom Marimbas.

The renowned instrument manufacturer (Adams Musical Instruments)has developed a unique ‘Bogdan Bácanu Signature Series’ of marimba mallets with Bogdan Bácanu, named after him.

His highly successful cooperation with Classic Concert Records since 2004 is evidence to this artist’s versatility.

Pedro Carneiro is a Portuguese solo classical percussionist, marimba player, and composer. Pedro Carneiro is one of the very few percussion players to have made an international career as a soloist, and has established himself as one of the world's foremost solo percussionists, performing regularly throughout Europe, the Asia and the United States.

Carneiro has won several international competitions and awards, while performing regularly in festivals and venues such as the BBC Proms, Rhythm Sticks Festival, Queen Elisabeth Hall and Purcell Room in London, Sonorities Festival in Belfast, Macau International Music Festival, Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago, New Zealand International Festival of the Arts, Capital Theatre in Beijing, La Biennale di Venezia, Folles Journées (Lisbon), Schumannfest in Düsseldorf, Festival Classique au Vert in Paris, amongst others. Mr. Carneiro has also performed recitals in cities such as London, Paris, Los Angeles, Hanover, Seville, Lisbon, Seoul and Hong Kong.

Carneiro is a frequent guest soloist with numerous orchestras: BBC National Orchestra of Wales, London Mozart Players, Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid, Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Régional de Basse-Normandie, Gävle Symfoniorkester and Portuguese Symphony Orchestra, to name but a few, working with conductors such as Petri Sakari, John Neschling, Ronald Zollman, Kaspar de Roo, Jurjen Hempel, Olari Elts, Andrew Parrott, Juanjo Mena, António Saiote, José Ramón Encinar, John Storgårds, Hamish McKeich, Max Rabinovitsj, Sarah Ioannides and Joseph Swensen, amongst others.

Pedro Carneiro has been heard and seen on radio and television stations throughout the world as well as releasing several solo recordings. As a guest teacher, Pedro has given masterclasses in many prestigious conservatoires and universities, such as the Royal College of Music, Guildhall School of Music & Drama and Trinity College of Music in London, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, São Paulo State University in Brazil and the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, to name but a few. He is the visiting professor of solo percussion studies at the Academia Nacional Superior de Orquestra in Lisbon.

As a member of Getz’s quartet, Burton won Down Beat magazine’s Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition award in 1965. By the time he left Getz to form his own quartet in 1967, Burton had also recorded three albums under his name for RCA. Borrowing rhythms and sonorities from rock music, while maintaining jazz’s emphasis on improvisation and harmonic complexity, Burton’s first quartet attracted large audiences from both sides of the jazz-rock spectrum. Such albums as Duster and Lofty Fake Anagram established Burton and his band as progenitors of the jazz fusion phenomenon. Burton’s burgeoning popularity was quickly validated by Down Beat magazine, which awarded him its Jazzman of the Year award in 1968, the youngest ever to receive that honor. During his subsequent association with the ECM label (1973-1988) the Burton Quartet expanded to include the young Pat Metheny on guitar, and the band began to explore a repertoire of modern compositions. In the ’70s, Burton also began to focus on more intimate contexts for his music. His 1971 album Alone at Last, a solo vibraphone concert recorded at the 1971 Montreux Jazz Festival, was honored with his first Grammy Award. Burton also turned to the rarely heard duo format, recording with bassist Steve Swallow, guitarist Ralph Towner, and most notably with pianist Chick Corea, thus cementing a long personal and professional relationship that has garnered an additional four Grammy Awards.

Also in the ’70s, Burton began his music education career with Berklee College of Music in Boston. Burton began as a teacher of percussion and improvisation at Berklee in 1971. In 1985 he was named Dean of Curriculum. In 1989, he received an honorary doctorate of music from the college, and in 1996, he was appointed Executive Vice President, responsible for overseeing the daily operation of the college.  

After eight years at RCA Victor, five at Atlantic Records, and sixteen at ECM Records (resulting in two more Grammy awards in 1979 and 1981), Burton began recording for GRP Records in 1988. In 1990, he paired up again with his former protege Pat Metheny for Reunion, which landed the number one spot on Billboard magazine’s jazz chart. After recording a total of eight CD's for GRP, Burton began his current label affiliation with Concord Records. Departure (Gary Burton & Friends) was released in 1997 as well as Native Sense, another duet collaboration with Chick Corea, which garnered Gary's fourth Grammy Award in 1998. Also in 1997, Burton recorded his second collection of tango music, Astor Piazzolla Reunion, featuring the top tango musicians of Argentina, followed by Libertango in 2000, another Piazzolla project. His 1998 Concord release, Like Minds, an all-star hit featuring his frequent collaborators Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Roy Haynes, and Dave Holland, was also honored with a Grammy win, Burton’s fifth. Gary’s vibraphone tribute CD, For Hamp, Red, Bags and Cal, was released in March 2001 and was honored with Gary’s 12th Grammy nomination (to date he has a total of 15 Grammy nominations). His 2002 release was a unique project with Makoto Ozone, Gary's pianist collaborator of the past twenty years. For Virtuosi the pair explored the improvisational possibilities of classical themes including works by Brahms, Scarlatti, Ravel, Barber and others. In an unusual move, the Recording Academy nominated Virtuosi in the Grammy's Classical music category, a unique honor for Gary and Makoto.

As Gary announced his retirement from Berklee College of Music in 2003 after 33 years at the college, he formed a new band and began touring regularly. The "Generations" band featured a line-up of talented young musicians including then sixteen-year old guitarist Julian Lage and Russian-born pianist Vadim Nevelovskyi. Gary recorded two CDs with the group titled Generation and Next Generation and the band toured steadily from 2003 through mid-2006.

Since then, Gary has focused his recording and performing efforts on collaborations, with old friends and new, including tours and recordings with Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Makoto Ozone, Spanish pianist/composer Polo Orti, and French accordionist Richard Galliano. Armistad Suite with Polo Orti and the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra was released in spring 2007. L’hymne a L’amour with Richard Galliano was released on the Camjazz label in August 2007. The double-CD live concert recording with Chick Corea, The New Crystal Silence, came out in 2008, resulting in the sixth Grammy for Gary Burton at the 2009 Grammy Awards.  Chick and Gary toured full-time from September 2006 through spring 2008, and continued off and on playing concerts in the USA and Europe in 2009. 

Next came collaborative project Quartet Live, reprising the Gary Burton Quartet of the 1970's with Pat Metheny, Steve Swallow and Antonio Sanchez.  Having already toured in Japan, USA, and Europe, this group made their third tour with performances in the USA and Canada in June, 2009.  Plans are already in place to re-unite and record and tour again in the near future. Meanwhile, Gary toured again with Chick Corea in 2010-2011. 

June 2011 saw the release of Common Ground, Gary's first release on Mack Avenue Records featuring the New Gary Burton Quartet.  The new group reunites the vibist with guitar star Julian Lage with the addition of drummer Antonio Sanchez and bassist Scott Colley.  The group will be busy touring throughout 2011. 

A grammy nominated artist, Tachoir has numerous recordings released with his band, the Group Tachoir, and is the author of A Contemporary Mallet Method: An Approach to the Vibraphone and Marimba, published through Riohcat Music.

The son of a police woman and banker, plus the oldest of three children, he escaped the family's spirited upstairs dynamics finding solace in his basement listening to any rock music he could get his hands on: Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Mott the Hoople and Genesis. His first purchase was The Guess Who. He played guitar at 8, drums at 9, and piano at 14. He directed his passions into devouring Mel Bay guitar books until he discovered classical music and an inspirational drum teacher.

Jazz wasn't on the radar screen until college. He received a Bachelor's degree in percussion from The University of the Arts in 1982. Following graduation, he continued fine-tuning his improv dexterity taking lessons from already established Philadelphia musicians. He never stops learning and the basement remains his comfort zone where he tirelessly practices, transcribes, composes, rehearses and listens. He says Milt Jackson is his favorite vibe player, “I think every vibe player would benefit by studying and transcribing Milt. He had amazing ears and musicianship. Any tune, any key, any time, and he knew them all.”

In addition to his love for classic rock, Miceli has a passion for AfroCuban and Latin music. His flirtation began in 1996 leading to collaborations with bandleader and timbale player, Edgardo Cintron and Cuban composer and pianist, Elio Villafranca. Subsequently, an invitation to attend and perform at the 1998 PerCuba percussion festival in Havana with Lino Batista solidified his adoration for the percussive beats and sensual rhythms of the music and traditions of the culture.

In the '80s he performed throughout

Germany, Holland, Belgium and England with Mallet Madness. He crossed the Atlantic to team up with an ensemble of mostly German musicians interpreting '60s classic rock into a straight-ahead format.

Closer to home, he performs as a leader or sideman in countless jazz clubs and concert halls including: Verizon Hall at The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Zanzibar Blue, World Cafe Live, Ortlieb's Jazzhaus, Chris's Jazz Cafe, the Painted Bride and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Mozart: Reloaded, a January '06 project for the Kimmel Center's award-winning Fresh Ink series has Miceli featured as one of the guest artists paying tribute to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in honor of his 250th birthday.

Popular festival performances include 20 years with Mellon, Reading, Harrisburg, Cape May, Berks County and more. Recordings include a self-titled compilation CD; Looking East with the Philly 5; On a Sweet Note, Gerald Veasley and the Electric Mingus Project; Band Shapes with French pianist Olivier Hutman; Monkadelphia; Music From the Inside Out, a companion CD for the new documentary showcasing The Philadelphia Orchestra; and two upcoming CD's: with Concord Jazz recording artist and guitarist, Jimmy Bruno and a BMG tribute album to Luther Vandross.

In addition to leading his own ensembles, Miceli has performed with Dave Liebman, Ken Peplowski, John Blake, John Swana, Joe Magnarelli and others. He is a member of PhilOrch Jazz Ensemble, a quartet featuring members of The Philadelphia Orchestra.

Miceli conducts master classes at the world-renowned Curtis Institute of Music and gives private instruction. He is on the faculty at The University of the Arts and Rowan University. In addition, he serves as a consultant to music and arts organizations.

For ten years, Miceli was a touring artist with the Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey Arts Councils. Additionally, he taught and performed for the Very Special Arts Association and Migrant Education Council in over four hundred schools, community centers, prisons and detention centers, including Graterford Prison, Muncy State Prison, Loysville Youth Detention Center and the Northeast Correctional Center. He worked in the mushroom fields in Chester County and in summer camps with children of migrant workers. In the mid-1990s he produced and performed with inmates at Graterford Prison as part of the Mellon Jazz Festival.

Joe Locke- Locke was born in Palo Alto, California, but raised in Rochester, New York.^[1] A self-taught improviser, he benefited from his early studies in classical percussion and composition at the Eastman School of Music with John Beck, Gordon Stout, Ted Moore and David Mancini.

The critical community continually cites Joe Locke for his artistic work. "There seems little doubt that Locke, with his ability to play cool and funky, heady and relaxed, is set to become the pre-eminent vibraphonist in jazz." (The Times, London) Joe has been voted the #1 vibist in DownBeat Magazine's Critic's Poll (TDWR) and Brazil's International Jazz Poll. Locke has recorded 20 CDs as a band leader, including the critically acclaimed "Moment to Moment", a tribute to the music of Henry Mancini. As producer and as a sideman, he appears on more than 65 recordings.

As a jazz musician, Locke was precocious, having played with such luminaries as Dizzy Gillespie, Pepper Adams and Mongo Santamaría before he was even out of high school.^{[citation needed]} Since moving to New York City in 1981, Joe has performed with Grover Washington, Jr., Kenny Barron, Dianne Reeves, Eddie Daniels, Jerry Gonzales' Fort Apache Band, Rod Stewart, Beastie Boys, Eddie Henderson, Hiram Bullock, Bob Berg, Ron Carter, Jimmie Scott, Geoffrey Keezer, The Mingus Big Band and Randy Brecker, among many others. Joe has toured extensively throughout the world, both as leader and guest soloist. Some highlights include a 16 city tour of Russia, which culminated in a concert with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of world-renowned violist, Yuri Bashmet; a 30 city tour of all major capitals of Europe, performing Charles Mingus' magnum opus, "Epitaph" as a featured soloist under the direction of distinguished conductor, Gunther Schuller; a series of volcanic duet concerts in Italy with pianist Cecil Taylor, where Joe went head-to-head for three nights with the undisputed high priest of the avante-garde.

In 2006, 2008 and 2009 Joe Locke received the "Mallet Instrumentalist of the Year" Award, presented by the Jazz Journalist Association (JJA)

Classical Percussion Ensembles

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  Blue Man Group
  
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  Stomp
  
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  Kroumata Home based in Stockholm, Sweden
  
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  ensemblebash Home based in London, UK
  
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  Via Nova - Percussion Group Home based in Salzburg / Austria
  
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  UAKTI - Oficina Instrumental Home based in Brazil
  
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  NEXUS Home based in Canada
  
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  Third Coast Percussion Quartet Home based in Chicago, USA
  
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  Singapore Wind Symphony's Percussion Ensemble (SWSPE) Home based in Singapore
  
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  Les Percussions de Strasbourg Home based in France
  
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  North East Hampshire Area Schools Percussion Ensemble Home based in the UK
  
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  Sixtrum Percussion Ensemble Home based in Montreal, Canada