Concerto for Marimba | warrenertle

In December of 2014, an idea for a marimba concerto would not leave my mind until I wrote it down. Two years later, it came to full three movement fruition, winning a spot on an honors recital as well as being world premiered in its entirety by the Mississippi Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra.

Performing with The Cavaliers Front Ensemble, I got to perform a lot of great, difficult, fast keyboard percussion music. I wanted to pack that type of "heat" and virtuosity into a marimba concerto that would hopefully be on par with other concertos. Solo percussion literature really began to bloom beginning in the 1950-60's, meaning that it missed the 19th-20th century "golden age" of the piano/keyboard instruments. In my concerto, I really strove to give the marimba that type of glory through a classical style, pianistic concerto for the rosewood piano.