IKMMA 2023 – Professors

July 14th – 23rd, 2023 in Gdansk / Poland

Katarzyna Mycka | Beverley Johnston | Juan David Forero Caviedes | Pedro Carneiro | Brian Zator

Marimba Festiva

Guest Professors:

Andreas Boettger – Germany / Conrado Moya – Spain / Roberto Hernandez Soto – Mexico / Grzegorz Jurczyk – Poland / Israel Moreno – Mexico / Paul Mootz – Luxembourg / Filip Merčep – Croatia / Hermann Schwander – Germany / Jacek Wota – Poland

Marimba Festiva

Katarzyna Mycka

Homepage: „www.marimbasolo.com“

… Critics have given the internationally renowned marimba virtuoso and chamber musician Mycka the sobriquet “she who dances with the mallets”: “the greatest fluidity”, “perfect mallet technique” and a “marvelous, rhythmic precision” are characteristic for the musician, who is able to simultaneously produce up to six tones on her concert marimba with the sixty narrow wooden bars and resonance pipes.

Expert circles testify to the “extraordinary ichness of tone quality” and “fascinatingly broad palette of musical effects” that the marimba, which is rarely heard as a solo instrument, produces under the whirling mallets of the musician from Stuttgart with Polish roots. Audiences are also enthralled by the artistic elegance and dance-like energy of her playing …
Performances as a soloist at the most important Marimba Festivals (Osaka 1998, Linz 2004, Minneapolis 2010) as well as soloist in many parts of the world with well-known orchestras (Stuttgart Philharmonic, Bochum and Göttingen Symphony, Polish Chamber Philharmonic Sopot, Vienna, Prague and Heilbronn Chamber Orchestra (WKO), Beijing Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Israeli, Maribor, Neubrandenburg and Vogtland Philharmonic, Folkwang Chamber Orchestra, RSO Luxembourg and various Polish symphony orchestras) make Katarzyna Mycka, today a leading pioneer of her still young instrument.

Marimba Festiva

Beverley Johnston

Homepage: „www.beverleyjohnston.com“

Beverley Johnston is one of Canada’s leading percussionists. Over the years, she has commissioned and performed many works by leading Canadian composers some of which have become a staple of the standard percussion repertory around the world. In honour of her exemplary commitment to the performance of the music of Canadian composers, she has been awarded the distinction of “Canadian Music Centre Ambassador”.

Her exceptional stage presence, her remarkable virtuosity and musicianship have established her reputation beyond the border of her native Canada, where she tours and performs frequently as a soloist and chamber musician. She has been invited to numerous internationally renowned marimba and percussion festivals over the years. She has recorded six solo CD’s and can be heard as soloist and chamber musician on many other recordings. Her recordings are available from the Canadian Music Centre and iTunes. Beverley teaches at the University of Toronto and is a MARIMBA ONE and PAISTE artist.

Marimba Festiva

Juan David Forero Caviedes

Born in 1979 in Bogotá, Colombia Juan David Forero Caviedes is one of the most recognized percussionists in his country. He has been interested in orchestral music and in marimba solo performance, taking the marimba to the main stages in Colombia in recitals, chamber music projects and soloist with orchestra.

He create the National Marimba Workshop in 2006 in order to teach young musicians and to explore new repertoire.
Juan has participated in several national and international competitions as the World marimba Competition in Stuttgart 2012, the Linz International Marimba Competition 2006 and the Concurso internacional de marimbistas en Tuxtla Gutierrez Mexico in 20011 among others.

He has taken masterclasses with important musicians as Keiko Abe, Katarzyna Mycka, Peter Sadlo, Bogdan Bacanu, Robert van Sice and Jean Geoffroy among others.

he participated in two versions of IKMMA as a Student and he was invited to be part of the Teachers in the 2016 version. He also has played concerts with the Katarzyna Mycka marimba Quartet in Germany and in PASIC 2017 in Indianapolis.
Since 2003 he is the principal Timpanist in the National Symphony of Colombia.

Marimba Festiva

Pedro Carneiro

Homepage: „www.innovativepercussion.com/artists/pedro_carneiro“

Pedro Carneiro was born in the southern bank of Lisbon in 1975. The son of the principal trumpeter of the Radio Symphony Orchestra and an amateur actress, Pedro was brought up around concerts, rehearsals and performances. He started learning piano as a small child, but quickly switched to cello and trumpet. As a hyperactive child he was seduced by percussion: the wealth of sounds, timbres, instruments and sonic invention – and has always been immersed in music, also composing and conducting. Carneiro entered the percussion class at the National Conservatoire in Lisbon when he was 12. He moved to London on a scholarship from the Gulbenkian Foundation and studied percussion with David Corkhill and conducting with Alan Hazeldine, at the Guidhall School of Music and Drama. Later on, he studied conducting with Emilio Pomàrico at the Scuola Civica in Milan.

Today, Pedro Carneiro is acclaimed internationally as one of the world’s foremost solo classical percussionists and increasingly active as a conductor and composer. Pedro’s virtuosity, passion, explosive energy and emotional spontaneity have inspired several of today’s leading composers to write works specially for him. He has performed the world première of over 100 new works and collaborates regularly with a wide range of acclaimed musicians. An enthusiastic chamber musician, Carneiro has commissioned, performed and recorded over a dozen new quintets for marimba and string quartet, in the company of the Tokyo, Arditti, Shanghai, Latinoamericano, New Zealand and Chilingirian string quartets.

Deeply committed to the musical development of his home country and fostering the work of fellow young musicians, he co-founded the Portuguese Chamber Orchestra in 2007, which he serves as artistic director and chief conductor. In a very short period of time, the Portuguese Chamber Orchestra – an exciting group of some of the nation’s top young professional musicians – has become the “Orchestra in Residence” at the Centro Cultural de Belém (Lisbon), performing their own concert series to sell-out audiences as well as touring nationally and internationally to impressive critical acclaim.

Marimba Festiva

Brian Zator

Homepage: „www.brianzator.com“

Brian Zator, is the Director of Percussion at Texas A&M University-Commerce and Immediate Past-President of the Percussive Arts Society. At A&M-Commerce, he coordinates all percussion activities including Percussion Ensemble I, II, & III, Drumline, „Panimation“ and Pan2 Steel Drum Bands, “Samba LeÁ£o” Brazilian Ensemble, undergraduate and graduate applied lessons, and the percussion methods and literature courses. He earned his Bachelor of Music Education degree from Baylor University, Master of Music degree from the University of Michigan, and his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of North Texas. He is also a student of world-renowned marimba artist, Keiko Abe, having performed and studied with her in Japan.

Brian Zator has two solo CD’s released on Equilibrium Records: “Zamiki: Music for Solo Marimba” and a chamber-works CD entitled, “Zoomorphs”. He is the author of the method book, „Keyboard Fundamentals with Play-Along Tracks“, published by Innovative Percussion. He is also the author and performer on several iBook publications providing detailed video instructions and full-length performances for popular marimba solos including Yellow After the Rain, Rain Dance, Sea Refractions, and The Tempest. He was a member of The Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps and taught the University of Michigan drumline. Active within the Percussive Arts Society (PAS), he currently serves as Immediate Past-President on the Executive Committee and Keyboard Editor for Percussive Notes. He has also served on the PAS Board of Directors, the Keyboard and Percussion Ensemble Committees, written reviews for Percussive Notes, and has adjudicated the PAS International Percussion Ensemble, Composition, and Solo Marimba competitions. Dr. Zator is proud to be a performing artist and clinician for Innovative Percussion, Evans, Sabian, and Black Swamp.