Sunday, September 13 2015: The Continuous Cycle


After dinner this evening, I worked for awhile on Thomas' Merlin (2nd movement). I am continually reminded why the composition is wonderful, standing the test of time -30 years. Along with works from Abe Bach, and Daughtrey, my work on marimba is still cut-out.

The summer of 2015 proved to be productive. I made progress on learning solo marimba works (some mentioned above) in preparation for a marimba recital "tour", along with running another great year of the Percussion Institute at SIUE, and planning for the eventually successful 1st annual SIUE Marching Percussion Festival in late August. Black Swamp Percussion had another magnificent year of entries for its Percussion Ensemble Showcase and Solo Multiple Percussion Showcase (Working with Andy Bliss and Eric Willie in the early part of the summer, we reviewed several entries of top quality, making our decisions to pick only a select amount of winners difficult.)

We are in week 4 at SIU Edwardsville. Time has gone extremely fast! SIUE Percussion is working on some great pieces for Percussion Ensemble, SIUE STEEL is preparing for gigs later this semester, and another trip to perform with the Hatters Pan Orchestra in Trinidad (2016) is in the fundraising & planning stages. Meanwhile, students are beginning to flourish and develop, additional departmental duties and service is ongoing, regional judging and clinics are around the corner, preparation for upcoming collaborative performances with colleagues is exciting, and PASIC 2016 is in San Antonio....Onward and upward, as they say.
-Daniel Smithiger (BSP Education Consultant)