Performance Opportunities on E-Bay???
November 19, 2009 by Sarah
Filed under Auditions/Jobs, General Percussion, Orchestral Percussion, Orchestral Percussion Auditions, Sarah's Blog
I was browsing the web when I came across this opportunity on eBay…
The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is doing fundraiser where anyone(?) can bid to perform with the orchestra. There doesn’t seem to be any restrictions on who can vote; however, the categories are limited. One can only vote on being the conductor or a string player. What about the winds and percussion? If there was a percussion bidding, I may have applied and taken a special trip oversees to claim my prize! It would have been a fun opportunity!
Even though I don’t plan on voting to play violin, I thought the idea was a brilliant new way for fundraising. Click here to check it out: Play with the CBSO!
Sarah Basel is a professional percussionist in the Chicagoland area. She has a masters in percussion performance from San Francisco Conservatory where she studied with Jack Van Geem (principal of San Francisco Symphony). She also received a Bachelor of Music Education which enabled her to study with Ed Harrison (principal timpanist of Lyric Opera of Chicago) from Concordia University in River Forest, Illinois. Sarah has been both a performer and a music educator for the past 16 years.
Sarah, hi,
I just bought my wife a wooden Musser xylophone on eBay for Christmas. It sounds great when I tap it with my fingers and the tone bars are made of wood. Seems like Rosewood and I lack experience in this area to be sure. What are appropriate mallets to use with an instrument like this? Many thanks,
Nicholas
Nicholas,
If the xylophone is made of Rosewood you will want to stick to softer mallets. The new student line mallets with model number US210 (softer plastic) and CS10 (hard cord) are both great mallets for Rosewood xylophone bars. The entire line of Unwound Rubber Mallets with model numbers U10, U20, U30, U40 are also a great mallet for rosewood xylophones. The Rosewood Mallets U300 are another good choice, however these are usually specialty mallets made for a certain sound effect. If your xylophone is made of Kelon, you can use the U200 Mallets, although they are a bit hard for indoor playing and were designed for glockenspiel. I have outlined this information in a chart found on the article “What Mallets Should I Use” under the Resources tab on the menu bar: http://www.rhapsodypercussion.com/?page_id=449.
You are probably correct that your Musser xylophone is made of rosewood, although it could possibly be a synthetic material called Kelon. If you are still not quite sure, Adam Rosen of the Peabody Conservatory describes the difference (with a slant towards rosewood being a better material) in a response to a question on Pearl’s Percussion Forum. You can find the article at http://www.pearldrummersforum.com/showthread.php?t=125662.
Thanks for your questions and I hope you find what you are looking for at Rhapsody Percussion!
Sarah