Written during the composer's Latin 101 class in college, "Latin Class" Rag" is a fun romp for solo xylophone & marimba trio.

Latin Class Rag (Solo Xylophone + Marimba Trio) - Andrew Thomson

"Doxy" is a dynamic battery percussion sextet that's a paradox of sorts…unison and independent, cooperative and competitive, powerful and controlled, identical yet different.

Doxy (Perc Ens 6) - Angela Kepley

"Door County Summers" is a large percussion ensemble work that evokes the composers memories of time spent at the Birch Creek Music Performance Center in Egg Harbor, WI. The work has multiple opportunities to feature improvisation from select performers, and expands the traditional concert percussion ensemble to include instruments such as steel pans and a rhythm section. With lush harmonies and soaring melodies, this work will be enjoyed by both performers and audience members alike!

Door County Summers (Perc Ens 12-14 + Electric Bass) - Brian Nozny

"Tendencies" is a keyboard percussion ensemble with flexible instrumentation that explores the tendencies of four scale degrees and two time signatures as it moves between four key signatures all hinging on a single pitch: C. It is playable by as few as four players on a shared low-A marimba with additional parts that expand the ensemble to 10 players. All parts are written for two mallets per player and are scored for shared instruments to limit equipment needs.

Tendencies (Perc Ens 4-10) - Josh Gottry

A Bomba is a secular, recreational style of music originating from Puerto Rico. It is characterized by a challenge or connection between the drummer and dancer, like a “call and response.” The dancer produces a series of gestures to which the lead drummer provides a rhythmic pattern. This flexible percussion ensemble may be played by as few as 6 players or as many as 10.

Bomba para los Niños (Flex Perc Ens 6-10) - Michael Huestis

the little things (Perc Ens 5 + Audience Performers) - Mat Campbell

Written for multi-percussion quintet, "Lone Wolf" brings together the shimmering metallic instruments and grounding rhythmic passages on the drums, to evoke the strength, resilience, and solitary spirit of the wolf in nature.

Lone Wolf (Percussion Quintet) - Joe W. Moore III

"Megastructure" is inspired by enormous architecture, such as the Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur, the Vessel, the Oculus, and the One World Trade Center in New York. Each of these massive works of art are truly breathtaking and awe-inspiring. 

Megastructure (8 Percussion, Piano, & Keytar) - Austin Taylor Smith

The work embarks on a journey through the skies and captures the many different feelings associated with clouds. There are the awe-inspiring sights to see, the bounciness and lightness of floating in the sky, and a storm that threatens to destroy. The goal, through this work, was to explore a new sound within the percussion orchestra. One that could be driving and intense, yet, still capture light and playful moments. A range of emotions and styles await within "Nimbus." The only question is: “Are you ready for the journey?

Nimbus (Perc Ens 14) - Christian Kilgore

Sheet music available from Tapspace at https://www.tapspace.com.

Rush Hour Samba (Eric Rath)

Echoes and Refractions ........................................... Michele Caniato 
I	(west) 
II	(north) 
III	(east) 
IV	(south) 

Kathryn Irwin
Brett Dietz 
Joe Moore
Gregory Lyons 

Mel Mobley, conductor 

Friday, June 6, 2025 - 7:00 PM Emy-Lou Biedenharn Recital Hall 
University of Louisiana at Monroe 

Duration: 15:00 I: 2:30, II: 2:10, III: 5:00, IV: 5:20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxfx32KBIg&ab_channel=NewMusicontheBayou

Echoes and Refractions: 

Planets, stars, and weather have helped guide human and animal meanderings across the Earth for millennia. Advances in technology in the past century have expanded the means by which people find their way around. Human activities have also brought major upheaval to the climate. 
I explore here the myth-laden cardinal points beginning with the West and ending with the South (West, North, East, South). Each movement is a tribute to the beauty and awe of natural phenomena we humans have enjoyed, celebrated, and feared worldwide, since our beginnings. 

Given the current environmental crisis these natural events can no longer be taken for granted. Unexpected weather can come to us in atypical seasons, in unusual places. While certain age-old realities persist (the sun is still perceived by people on Earth as setting in the West), in our times cardinal directions may not be guiding a pilot, an astronaut, or a person with GPS. 
Each movement comes to a close with an echo that refracts fragments of its music, veiling what we just heard with uncertainty. 

The last movement “South” culminates in a festive celebration of rhythm and song, adding the vertical axis of earth and sky (that parallels our two-legged stance). It also ends with “echo music,” with the vibraphone leading us somewhere unexplored. It perhaps adds to the six directions traveled (West, North, East, South, Below, Above), one further path: the movement inwards.

© Michele Caniato

Echoes and Refractions for percussion quartet

"Simple Objects" was Inspired by this quote from percussionist Steven Schick: “Percussion instruments are, after all, simple objects: hit them and they will make a sound.” Centered on four featured batter/auxiliary parts that celebrate their melodic simplicity, the timpani & keyboard instruments color these melodies with pitch.

Simple Objects (Perc Ens 12) - Louis Raymond-Kolker

"Ice" is a duet for marimba and vibraphone with 2 auxiliary percussionists bound to put you in a "chill" mood. Heavily influenced by jazz, both the vibraphone and marimba have moments to shine with melodic features throughout while the other instruments accompany.

Ice (Percussion Quartet) - Nathan Hervey

“While It Lasts” is a metallic-forward percussion ensemble that explores one’s perception of time, beginning with atmospheric bowed vibraphones and gradually building in tempo, color, and intensity throughout. This piece offers great contrast on any concert program and is perfect for developing musical nuance within an intermediate ensemble.

While It Lasts (Perc Ens 9 + Piano) - Cameron Brown

Everything in its Right Place

Foxglove

Variations on Themes of Luigi Boccherini was composed for Wind Orchestra by Gregory Fritze. The duration is thirteen minutes, in two movements. It was arranged in 2025 from the five movement,  twenty-six minute piece Vadit Super Pozolum that was composed in 2016, also by Gregory Fritze.

Variatiions on Themes by Luigi Boccherini

Variations on Themes of Luigi Boccherini

With a title pertaining to dreams or a dreamlike state, "Oneiric" is a work for large percussion ensemble that begins sparsely and gradually builds in intensity into a bright & driving celebration before concluding with the introspection from the opening.

Oneiric (Perc Ens 13-16) - Chad Heiny

Composer Michele Caniato writes chamber, orchestral, vocal, piano, and jazz music. His works have been performed nationally and internationally, including in the USA, Canada, Italy, Finland, and on Italian National Radio.

He was the winner of the 2019 Orchestra Composition Contest at the 53rd Contemporary Music Festival at Indiana State University, a finalist in the BMI Foundation/Charlie Parker Composition Competition in New York, and semi-finalist for the American Prize, and has received Fulbright, Massachusetts Cultural Council, and Jasper Whiting Foundation grants, and residencies at Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts (WY), and Escape to Create (FL).

Michele received a doctoral degree in composition from Boston University where he studied with Lukas Foss, and trained also at the New England Conservatory and Berklee College of Music. He has been a longtime member of the faculty at Fitchburg State University. Caniato is an ASCAP member and his music is distributed by Subito Music.

New tracks tagged #Percussion Ensemble