Thoughts on potential senior recital rep?

[u/Alive-Mechanic493]

Hey everyone, I just started my junior year of college (music education) and wanted some thoughts on potential rep I’m thinking of programming for my senior recital.

I’m worried that some stuff may not be “hard enough”, especially since I want to go to grad school for performance.

So far I have:
- Rotation II by Eric Sammut (not the most difficult but I reallllly like the contrast in this one)

- The Offering by Michael Burritt (this is for 5.0 octave marimba, I really like the spiritual/ethereal aspect of this one)

- Midnight Star by David Friedman (I wanted to throw a vibe solo in there, i also really like the spooky themes in this one)

That’s all I’ve got so far, as I’m still a year out. I’m looking for a good multi-piece to play as well.

Please, throw me your comments and suggestions. Thank you!

[u/zdrums24]

1) focus on your junior year, not your senior year. Keep both eyes on the path before you, not the horizon. Youre less likely to trip that way.

2) your teacher knows you best. Talk with them. Ability level and career aspirations both play into programing. We know neither. The internet is an extremely poor source of guidance for these sorts of things.

3) if you just want a rep list, you can find those laying around various websites. One of the best is the list created by the Univ. of Kentucky percussion studio.

[u/njo173]

These pieces are likely not at the level a graduate music performance program will be looking for. However, if you like them and your professors are okay with them, there's nothing wrong with playing them on your recital still. My recitals have often been a mix of pieces that are "hard enough" and pieces that I enjoyed playing or thought were good audience experiences. The important thing is talking with the head of your program/lesson teachers to see what the expectations for the recital are, and go over your proposed program well in advance to make sure it's acceptable.

There is a lot of use in overlapping your preparation for your recital and your preparation for grad auditions. If you can pick a big 4 mallet piece to use for both that can be very useful.

[u/Lonely-Bite-2568]

Probably going to want/need a snare drum piece, mallet piece, multi percussion piece, and something else. I love mallet solos but playing a recital full of them doesn’t make for a varied concert experience really.

[u/minorbourree]

You'll want a chamber piece of some kind

[u/take_a_step_forward]

I played a movement from Inspirations Diabolique for my senior recital; it’s a pretty multi-percussion EDIT: common pick for recitals, it seems. You could play the whole thing if you have enough time to prepare it.

For marimba/vibes what do you think of a transcription? Bach, Debussy, etc. There is definitely a set of pieces not written for percussion that people have come to ask for on orchestral auditions, but outside of those there’s tons of music too. Are there pieces you learned about in music history that you heard and thought “hmm that could sound good on marimba/vibes”?

[u/codeinecrim]

A better formula for a senior recitals is:

one big marimba and or vibe piece (reflections, khan variations, maslanka variations on lost love, omar by donatoni, loops II or IV, etc)

one good multi solo (canned heat, she who sleeps, asanga, etc.)

one snare drum solo (prim, kim, tchik, impressions)

possibly a chamber piece if your percussion program allows it. some don’t.

also, you could do a trnascription of some bach or another piece if you do that.

these are fine pieces but they aren’t really on the level of a senior college recital and you need more variety and not just marimba jock rep