Nashville Marimba Sessions

Faculty

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  Ji Hye Jung

  Artistic Director

  Percussionist Ji Hye Jung has been praised as “spectacular” by the Los Angeles Times and “extraordinary” by the Ventura County Star, with the Times further describing her as “a centered player who can give the impression of being very still yet at all places at once.”Jung began concertizing in her native South Korea at the age of 9, going on to perform more than 100 concerts, including solo appearances with every major orchestra in Korea. Soon after coming to the United States in 2004, Jung garnered consecutive first prizes at the 2006 Linz International Marimba Competition and the 2007 Yale Gordon Concerto Competition.With percussion repertoire still in its formative stages, Jung feels strongly about collaborating with composers to further the creation of a new voice for the art form. She has commissioned and premiered works by several important composers, including Kevin Puts, Alejandro Viñao, Paul Lansky, John Serry, Lukas Ligeti, and Jason Treuting. In 2013, she made the premiere recording of Michael Torke’s marimba concerto Mojave, and in 2014 recorded Phillip Glass’ Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra for the Naxos label.Jung frequently performs with many of today’s most important conductors and instrumentalists. For six years she has served as principal percussionist with West Coast chamber ensemble Camerata Pacifica, with whom she has premiered works by Bright Sheng and Huang Ruo. She has also recorded Stravinsky’s Les Noceswith JoAnn Falletta at the Virginia Arts Festival, performed as soloist with David Robertson conducting an all-Messiaen program at Carnegie Hall, and made her concerto debut with the Houston Symphony under the baton of Hans Graf in 2005.Other performance credits include appearances at Portugal’s Tomarimbando Festival, the West Cork Chamber Music Festival in Ireland, The Intimacy of Creativity in Hong Kong, the Grand Teton Music Festival, Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein Festival, and the Grachtenfestival in Holland.In 2015, Jung was named Associate Professor of Percussion at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music. She previously served as Associate Professor of Percussion at the University of Kansas for six years. An active educator and clinician, Jung has presented master classes at the Curtis Institute, the Peabody Conservatory, Rice University, Beijing’s Central Conservatory, and the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, Poland.Jung completed a Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music and a Bachelor of Music degree at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, both under the tutelage of Robert van Sice. As an artist endorser, she proudly represents Pearl/Adams instruments, Vic Firth sticks and mallets, and Zildjian cymbals.
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  Michael Burritt

  Guest Artist

  Having performed on four continents and more than forty states, Michael Burritt is one of his generation’s leading percussionists. He is in frequent demand, performing concert tours and master classes throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia and Canada. Mr. Burritt has been soloist with the United States Air Force Band, Dallas Wind Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, Richmond Symphony Orchestra, Nexus, Third Coast Percussion, Ju Percussion Group (Taiwan), Percussion Art Quartet (Germany) and the Amores Percussion Group (Spain). Mr. Burritt has three solo as well as numerous chamber recordings. In 2018 he recorded his Home Trilogy with the world-renowned percussion group Nexus, and is soon to release a new recording of solo and chamber works by Alejandro Viñao with the Grammy Award-winning Third Coast Percussion. In 2006 he recorded the Joseph Schwantner Percussion Concerto with the Calgary Wind Ensemble on the Albany label.He has been a featured artist at nine Percussive Arts Society International Conventions. In 1992 he presented his New York solo debut in Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall and in 1998 performed his London debut in the Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall. Mr. Burritt has extensive chamber and orchestral experience and has performed with the Chicago Chamber Musicians, The Chicago Symphony, Nexus, Third Coast Percussion and the The Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra.Mr. Burritt is also active as a composer, with three concertos to his credit as well as numerous solo and chamber works for marimba and percussion. His works for solo marimba have become standard repertoire for the instrument, and are frequently required repertoire on international competitions. Commissions include The World Marimba Competition in Stuttgart Germany, The Paris International Marimba Competition, Nexus and the Paris Percussion Group. Mr. Burritt is published with Keyboard Percussion Publications, C. Alan, Masters Music, and Innovative Percussion. Burritt is also an artist/clinician and product design/consultant for Malletech, where he has developed his own line of marimba mallets and the MJB Signature Marimba. He is an artist/educational clinician with the Zildjian Company, Evans Drum Heads, and Yamaha Drums. Mr. Burritt is the President Elect of Percussive Arts Society, was a member of the Board of Directors from 1996 to2008, a contributing editor for Percussive Notes magazine from 1991 to 2006 and was chairman of the PAS Keyboard Committee from 2004 to 2010.Michael Burritt is currently Professor of Percussion and chair of the Winds, Brass, and Percussion department at the Eastman School of Music. He is only the third person in the history of the school to hold this position. Prior to his appointment at Eastman, Mr. Burritt was Professor of Percussion at Northwestern University from 1995 to 2008, where he developed a program of international distinction. Mr. Burritt received his Bachelor (’84) and Master of Music (’86) Degrees, as well as the prestigious Performers Certificate, from the Eastman School of Music.
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  Eriko Daimo

  Guest Artist

  Praised for her ‘mesmerizing combination of sound and sight’ (Irish Times), the award-winning marimbist, Eriko Daimo, is one of the leading artists of her field.
  
  Her recent performances include concerto performances with some of the world’s leading orchestras such as the RTE Ireland National Symphony Orchestra, Tampere Philharmonic in Finland, Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra, Sophia Philharmonic in Bulgaria, Osaka Symphony Orchestra, Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra, Magdeburg Philharmonic Orchestra in Germany, Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra and Orchestra Nipponika among others; as well as recital tours over 25 countries in Asia, Europe and the Americas.  She has given recitals and masterclasses in some of today’s most recognized percussion festivals, including the Taiwan International Percussion Convention, Italy PAS Percussion Festival, International Marimba Festival in Minneapolis, Internacional de Marimbistas in Mexico, Festival des Journees de la Percussion in Paris, Universal Marimba Festival in Belgium, KOSA International Music Festival in the US, International Percussion festival in Korea, International League of Artists Marimba Festival in Tokyo, Bamberg International Marimba Festival in Germany, and PASIC.  
  
  As an educator, she has given concerts and masterclasses at music institutions including the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Paris Conservatory, Royal Irish Academy of Music, Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, San Francisco Conservatory, Colburn Conservatory, among others.  Also, she has been presenting a series of masterclasses at New York University since 2013.
  
  She served as a judge for the New York International Percussion Competition(2016, 2018), Percussion Arts Society International Percussion Competition(2011,2012, 2013, 2017), Majaoja Percussion Competition(Finland), Italy PAS Percussion Competition, Latin America Marimba Competition in Mexico, and Bamberg International Marimba Competition(Germany), Universal Marimba Competition in Belgium.
  
  As a student, she has won top prizes in numerous competitions, including 1st prizes at the International Marimba Competition 2004 in Belgium, Japan International League of Artists Competition, Japan PAS 20th Annual Percussion Solo Competition 2004, and Japan Soloist Music Competition and more. 
  
  Born in Kagoshima, Japan, Ms. Daimo began her musical studies at age five on the piano. She started studying the marimba when she entered high school in 1997, and went on to study at the Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music and the Boston Conservatory. 
  
  Ms. Daimo is an endorser of Marimba One, Zildjian company and Innovative Percussion Inc. which produces her signature mallet series. She is on the faculty at The Juilliard School pre-college division and teaches Marimba at the New York University Steinhardt as well. Daimo is an Artist in Residence at University of Music and Performing Arts Graz in Austria 2023.
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  Marta Klimasara

  Guest Artist

  It was her outstanding musical qualities which led the jury of the ARD contest in Munich to honour Marta Klimasara with the first prize in the percussions discipline in the autumn of 2001. The Polish musician, who also won the – all time first – prize of the public this year, is endowed not only with winning charm and personality but also with great artistic sensitivity and polyvalence: she masters the soft, sometimes even intimate sound of the marimba with as much assurance as all the other challenges of the manifold percussion instrumentary with its almost endless arrangement possibilities.It was by no means clear from the beginning that Marta Klimasara would become a percussionist: a piano student in her home town of Sosnowiec, she took up percussions at the age of twelve and was rewarded, four years later and whilst studying under Krzystof Jaguszewski, with several national prizes; she soon started on a solo career with the Silesian Philharmony in Kattowitz. To pursue her studies under professor Klaus Treβelt at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart she moved to Germany in 1994 and has since been living in the capital of Baden-Württemberg.Today Marta Klimasara is a highly-acknowledged percussionist, famed also outside the borders of her new home; her international renown rests not only on her tournées in France, Sweden, Japan and South Africa but also on her many successes in international contests. Before winning the ARD contest—one of the most famed competitions in its field — she had already been awarded the first prize in the “2nd World Marimba Competition” in Japan in 1999 as well as the second prize in the “3rd Krzystof Penderecki International Competition of Contemporary Music” in Krakow. The young artist holds scholarships from the Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe and the Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg and was commended by the European Cultural Foundation in Strasburg for her outstanding musical and artistic personality. In 2004 she became professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart.Marta Klimasara takes part in concerts with orchestras such as RSO Stuttgart, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, National Philharmony Warsaw, National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the RSO Saarbrücken and is a guest on many international festivals in cities including Vienna, Paris, Warsaw and St. Petersburg. She also produces radio and television recordings with the Bavarian and Hessian radio institutions, with the SWR, France Musique, SR 2 KulturRadio and Deutschlandradio.Her solo debut recording I Ching was released in spring 2002 with triptychon. She plays on a Malletech Stilletto marimba.