Marimba Band Makes the Valley Ring at FREE CONCERT

MusicaNova Orchestra presents the second in its series of free community concerts as the Sonoran Marimba Band takes the stage Sunday, October 9 from 3:00 to 4:30 PM at Scottsdale Presbyterian Church, at the corner of Hayden and Osborn Roads. Admission is free, and donations to support the series will be accepted.

The Sonoran Marimba Band is a quartet comprised of virtuoso percussionists Sonja Branch, Jeremy Muller, Douglas Nottingham, and Brett Reed. Each has been active in the Phoenix area as performer, teacher and composer in genres of percussion ranging from classical to jazz to rock to world music. The group is committed to enthusiastic community engagement to promote a diversity of music and a greater awareness of the marimba and its place in modern music.

The concert shows the versatility of the players and their instruments, with modern chamber works for marimba, and music for jazz vibraphone, ragtime xylophone, and Meso-American marimba. The audience gets into the action too, playing on Shona songs from Zimbabwe. In Shona there is little distinction between the performer and the audience, both actively involved in the music making and dancing. (Dancing in the aisles and traditional dress are encouraged!)

Band member Sonja Branch soars in myriad artistic activities, from timpanist for MusicaNova to lead drummer for a West African dance class, and much more. Jeremy Muller is an inventive percussionist, multimedia artist, and composer dedicated to exploring science and technology with modern performance. Douglas Nottingham has been active throughout the U.S. as a percussionist, performance artist, composer, music educator, recording artist and producer. Brett Reed is a performer, appearing as a solo percussionist and as a member of several ensembles and a composer specializing in contemporary and improvised music.

About MusicaNova

MusicaNova is a professional symphony orchestra founded in 2003 and dedicated to playing new and neglected music and introducing the finest young artists to the Valley of the Sun. MusicaNova is supported in part by grants from the Arizona Commission on the Arts and the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture. Call 480-585-4485, or visit www.musicanovaaz.com.

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