Arabic music class

Raffi Massoyan working with Rowan Jazz alum, Erik Marley

Congratulations to senior, Lavianna Felder!!

Senior music education major, Lavianna Felder was selected in a blind audition to play the famous xylophone part in Kabalevsky’s Colas Breugnon for the upcoming concert by the Rowan University Wind Ensemble.

Congratulations to sophomore jazz major, Ryan Cullen who finished the 12 Etudes for snare drum by Jacques Delecluse. Ryan is king for a day and gets his name on my studio door to acknowledge this huge milestone!!!

Monday 2/11/13 Masterclass tonight with Philadelphia Orchestra percussionist Anthony Orlando. He’ll be coaching students on Shostakovich 5 for the orchestra concert in 2 weeks. Should be an awesome class…they always are!!

Monday night February 18th at 8:00 the Rowan University Percussion Ensemble and Marimba Band will be presenting an evening of mallet music, including a US premiere of Karel Husa’s new duo Elegie. Dean Witten will play the vibraphone/percussion part with Rowan alumnus Anthony DiBartolo on marimba; also 4 ragtime xylophone standards with Ryan Cullen, Gavin McCauley, Glenn Dawson and Lavianna Felder as soloists; and a new arrangement by Jim Miller of 3 Thelonius Monk tunes titled Sphere Knot. Highlighting the program will be Denis DiBlasio’s TV Themes, a medley of 36 popular TV theme songs perfectly orchestrated for percussion quintet. Do you remember …….Bonanza, Wild Wild West, Mr. Ed, Leave It To Beaver, Petticoat Junction, The Real McCoys, I Dream of Jeannie, Dobie Gillis The Munsters, Star Trek, I Love Lucy, The Flinstones, Mr Rogers, The Muppets and 24 more!!! Great fun…great piece.

The freshman class of 2028

Emily and Abigail Dammers listening to sophomore Ryan Cullen practice.

LET THE RAGTIME RACE BEGIN. IT’S ON!!

Last Friday, I gave out 20 ragtime arrangements for our Rowan Marimba Band.  The idea was to get everyone back to 2-mallet playing, challenge the students, and find a solo for everyone to be featured on our February concert.  Obviously not all 20 can be on a single program…………so the ragtime race has begun.  RUN BABY RUN!!

Congratulations to the Rowan University percussion studio for an amazing world premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s newest piece, Like Clockwork. She was quoted after the performance as saying, “these percussionists played the holy heck out of it. It’s a really difficult piece and they played it beautifully”.

dress rehearsal of Like Clockwork before the world premiere