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PERCUSSION AND MARIMBA ENSEMBLE
Mark Door, director

Created in 1993 by its director Mark Dorr, the Grinnell College Percussion and Marimba Ensemble has become one of the largest and most active groups of its kind in the midwestern United States. The twelve member ensemble performs two to three concerts each semester, both on and off the Grinnell campus. The group has performed at four Percussive Arts Society "Iowa Days of Percussion" state conventions (1995-1998) and regularly presents special outreach concerts to school groups, nursing homes, churches, and other organizations. In March of 1999 the Percussion Ensemble was invited to perform a ragtime and early jazz concert during the prestigious Salisbury House Chamber Music Series. While in Des Moines the group also gave a special performance for instrumental students at a local high school and appeared as guest artists during a WHO (NBC) television newscast. The ensemble has performed with such internationally known musicians as Grammy award winner Dave Samuels (1995), former Tonight Show drummer Ed Shaughnessy (1995), early jazz performance specialist Dana Kimble (1998), and Los Angeles freelance drum set artist Steve Houghton (1998).

Literature selected for performance provides each member of the Percussion and Marimba Ensemble program the opportunity to study and perform the rich and varied music in existence today for the percussion family of instruments. Included are musical selections from the Classic and Romantic eras plus ragtime, jazz, popular, and avant-garde literature. Particular emphasis is placed on the performance of authentic multi-national percussion music, with repertoire drawn from but not exclusive to North and South America, Mexico, the Caribbean region, Europe, Russia, Asia, and Africa. Original compositions written specifically for the percussion ensemble genre, works specifically transcribed, arranged or composed for the mallet keyboard instrument family, and the performance of avant-garde principal works by major composers from throughout the 20th century make up a typical Percussion and Marimba Ensemble concert at Grinnell College.