IU East will host two musicians for several events on Friday, November 13, including a world-premiere performance of a new work by Elliot Miles McKinley, assistant professor of music and informatics director of music studies, for violin and marimba. Featured musicians are Andrew Martin, musicologist and percussionist, and Minnesota violinist Ginna Watson.

Events are free and open to the public. The schedule is provided below.

Martin is an assistant pofessor of music at Inver Hills Community College, Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, and adjunct pofessor of music at Concordia University of St. Paul, Minn. Martin has taught abroad in China and Europe as well as presented lectures and numerous conference papers throughout the United States, Europe, China, and the Caribbean. His first book, Pan-America: Exotica, Carnival, and the Steel Band Movement in the United States, is forthcoming from the University of Mississippi Press.

Martin completed his Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from the University of Minnesota in 2009.

A performer of both western and world percussion, Martin performs as a steel drummer and percussionist throughout the Twin Cities and the Midwest. Recent orchestral performances include guest percussionist and timpani soloist appearances with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, as well as section percussion appearances with numerous regional orchestras. Martin was a founding member of the Minneapolis based new music group The Renegade Muses, Martin/Taylor Flute-Percussion Duo, and the Martin/Titus Guitar-Percussion Duo. In June 2008, Martin performed as marimba soloist the European premiere of Raggedy Andy: A Concerto fantasy for Marimba and Chamber Ensemble by McKinley with the Prague Academy Chamber Symphony in Prague, Czech Republic.

Watson is a Minneapolis-based violinist and early music specialist. She performs with the The Rose Ensemble for Early Music, the Lyra Baroque Orchestra, and the Bach Society, as well as with most of the early music productions in the Twin Cities. She has appeared on many early music series throughout the United States, including Early Music Columbus and the Milwaukee Early Music Now series, as well as the Boston, Indianapolis, and San Antonio early music festivals.

Internationally, Watson has performed in the Tage Alte Musik early music festival in Regensburg, Germany, and the Los Siglos de Oro early music series in Madrid, Spain, as well as festivals in Italy and France.

Watson is the violin instructor at Hamline University in St. Paul. She also frequently gives masterclasses on medieval and baroque performance practice in the Twin Cities and throughout the country, including Houston Baptist University, Colorado State University, Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and the Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity in Los Angeles.

The planned schedule of events is:

10 a.m. – Music Lecture Presentation, Springwood Hall, room 217. Andrew Martin, University of Minnesota and InverHills College, St Paul.
Topic: “Remade or Un-made: The “Manhattan Calypso” of the 1950s

3 p.m. – Music Masterclass on Marimba and Percussion Instruments, Vivian Auditorium. Andrew Martin, University of Minnesota and InverHills College, St Paul.
Topic: A masterclass and seminar for percussionists and musicians and interested non-musicians on percussion playing and the marimba.

7:30 p.m. – Concert, Vivian Auditorium
Andrew Martin, marimba, and Ginna Watson, violin: A concert of violin and marimba music including a world-premiere performance of Elliott Miles McKinley’s 2008 “Suite for Violin and Marimba.”

For more information, contact Elliot Miles McKinley, assistant professor of music and informatics director of music studies, at (765) 973-8278 or e-mail elmmckin@iue.edu.