Directory
A directory of marimba performers, composers, educators, and ensembles.
Keiko Abe is a marimbist and composer who has made a major contribution to the development of the modern concert marimba. She is Specially Appointed Professor of marimba at Toho Gakuen (as of July 22, 2026). Her honors include six Fine Arts Festival Awards and the Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs Award. Her compositions include Dream of Cherry Blossoms (桜の幻影, 1984), Bamboo Dream, and Prism Rhapsody.
View profileLudwig Albert is a Belgian marimbist, composer, educator, and artistic director whose work spans concert performance, recordings, marimba pedagogy, instrument development, and international competitions. In July 2026 he served as founder and artistic director of the 10th Universal Marimba Competition Belgium.
View profileShoko Araya is a Japanese marimbist, percussionist, composer, singer-songwriter, and educator. She graduated from Kunitachi College of Music, earned a master's degree in percussion at the University of Michigan, and received the 2017 Aomori Prefecture Culture Award. Her work connects classical and improvised performance with voice, theater and spoken-word music, recordings, body percussion, and participatory workshops.
View profileSaulius Auglys-Stanevičius, also credited as Saulius Auglys, is a Lithuanian percussionist, marimbist, composer, arranger, educator, and festival organizer whose work spans orchestral performance, contemporary Lithuanian music, recordings, competitions, and international workshops.
View profileAxoum Duo is a marimba duo formed in 2000 by French percussionist and composer Gabriel Collet and Polish percussionist Elwira Ślązak.
View profileBogdan Bácanu is a Romanian marimbist and educator. He studied marimba with Peter Sadlo at Mozarteum University Salzburg. He is Professor of Marimba at Anton Bruckner Private University (as of July 22, 2026), a position he first took at age 23. He founded the Wave Quartet and, in 2006, an international marimba competition. Composers including John Thrower, Alexander Müllenbach, and Emmanuel Séjourné have written works for him.
View profileJoby Burgess is a British percussionist whose work spans solo performance, chamber music, new commissions, recording sessions, and film and television scores. He directs the projects Powerplant and Pioneers of Percussion and organized the 2020 Virtual Marimba Choir, which brought together 227 performers from 40 countries.
View profileMichael Burritt is a percussionist, marimbist, composer, and educator. He is Professor of Percussion, Paul J. Burgett Distinguished Professor, and chair of Woodwinds, Brass & Percussion at the Eastman School of Music (as of July 15, 2026). Before joining Eastman, he taught at Northwestern University from 1995 to 2008. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees and the Performers Certificate from Eastman. His compositions include concertos and solo and chamber works for marimba and percussion.
View profileGary Burton is an American jazz vibraphonist and educator whose four-mallet approach influenced modern vibraphone playing. A seven-time Grammy Award recipient, he led ensembles, recorded extensively with Chick Corea and other major jazz musicians, and taught at Berklee from 1971 until retiring in 2004.
View profilePedro Carneiro is a Portuguese percussionist, conductor, composer, and educator. He co-founded and serves as artistic director of the Portuguese Chamber Orchestra, the inclusive ensemble Notas de Contacto, and the Portuguese Youth Orchestra. He has premiered more than 100 works as performer or conductor and regularly directs concertante works from the marimba. He is a professor at the Lisbon School of Music (as of the 2025/26 season).
View profilePius Cheung is a marimbist, percussionist, composer, and educator. His solo-marimba recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations brought broad attention to his work as an interpreter. His compositions include solo and ensemble percussion music, concertos, and the ballet Heaven and Earth. He is Professor and Chair of the Percussion Area at the University of Oregon (as of July 15, 2026).
View profileMark Ford is a marimba artist, percussionist, composer, and educator. His works for solo marimba and percussion ensemble include Polaris, Stubernic, Head Talk, and Marimba Heritage. He has also published method books including Marimba: Technique Through Music. He is Professor in Instrumental Studies and Coordinator of Percussion at the University of North Texas (as of July 15, 2026), and a past president of the Percussive Arts Society.
View profileMutsuko Fujii, a percusionist, a marimbist, and a Sanukite player (Sanukaite is a marimba like instrument made of a type of stone called Sanukite), graduated Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku in 1971 and since then, she has been actively playing as a percussionist as well as a solo and duo marimba player. She has commissioned over 40 works for the marimba from Japanese composers.
View profileGreg Giannascoli is a marimba and percussion artist and a percussionist with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. He won the 2001 Artist International New York Recital / Young Artist Competition and was a top prizewinner of the 1997 Patrons of Wisdom International Young Artist Competition.
View profileDame Evelyn Glennie is a solo percussionist and composer. Her official biography describes her as the first person to create and sustain a full-time career as a solo percussionist. She has commissioned more than 200 works and recorded more than 40 albums. Her honors include two Grammy Awards, the Polar Music Prize, the Léonie Sonning Music Prize, and appointment as a Companion of Honour. She also established the Evelyn Glennie Foundation in 2023.
View profileAndy Harnsberger is an American percussionist, marimbist, composer, and educator. He earned a Doctor of Musical Arts and Performer's Certificate from the Eastman School of Music, performs as a soloist and in the Harnsberger/Jones Duo, and has released five solo albums. He is Professor of Music and Coordinator of Percussion at Lee University (as of July 15, 2026).
View profileRia Ideta is a Vienna-born, Kumamoto-raised marimbist and arranger based in Berlin. She studied at the conservatoires in Paris and Strasbourg and won first prize at the inaugural International Marimba Competition in Paris in 2003. A principal artist with Kammeroper München since 2012, she is also a guest professor at Heisei College of Music and the London Performing Arts Academy and serves as chair of Loop Kumamoto Music Festival 2026.
View profileYukako Ihara is a marimba player who placed fourth in the percussion division of the 19th Japan Wind and Percussion Competition in 2002.
View profileBorn in Tokyo in 1975, Shinsuke Ishihara began piano at the age of three, took up percussion at thirteen, and came to the marimba at twenty. He graduated at the top of his class from Toho Gakuen College of Music and went on to graduate with the highest distinction ("grootste onderscheiding") from the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp. He performed under the stage name SINSKE from 2003 until September 2024, and now appears under his own name as Shinnosuke Ishihara (石原慎之助).
View profileKikuko Ishii is a percussionist and professor at Senzoku Gakuen College of Music, active in solo, ensemble, recording, and university teaching work.
View profileAlex Jacobowitz is a New York-born marimba and xylophone soloist, street performer, and author. After studying marimba and xylophone with Gordon Stout and Leigh Howard Stevens, he won the DCI Individual Keyboard Competition in 1981.
View profileMomoko Kamiya is a Japanese marimbist and educator. A Juilliard School graduate and first-prize winner at the 1995 Luxembourg International Marimba Competition, she performs, teaches, premieres new music, and serves on international competition juries. As of August 13, 2026, she is professor of percussion at Tokyo College of Music, guest professor at Senzoku Gakuen College of Music and Elisabeth University of Music, and percussion faculty at Kunitachi College of Music.
View profileLaurence Kaptain is a cimbalom artist, percussionist, marimba researcher, and educator. He is Professor of Music and Entertainment Studies and former Dean of the College of Arts & Media at the University of Colorado Denver.
View profileKuniko Katō is a Japanese marimbist and percussionist from Aichi. A graduate with highest honours from the Rotterdam Conservatory, she has expanded music by Reich, Pärt, Xenakis, Bach, and others through percussion and marimba performance, recording, and arrangement, while also mentoring emerging artists.
View profileKazuko Kishida is a Japan-based marimba player, percussionist, and educator whose work includes solo performance, recording, teaching, workshops, and competition adjudication. She gave a marimba recital at Suntory Hall's small hall in 1987. Shobi University lists her as Kazuko Ogawa (Kishida), a part-time lecturer since April 2000, as of its April 2026 faculty roster.
View profileRebecca Kite is a US-based concert marimbist, percussionist, timpanist, writer, and educator. Her work includes international performance and teaching, two solo recordings, and books on mallet-percussion reading, marimba repertoire, and Keiko Abe.
View profileJasmin Kolberg is a German marimbist, percussionist, educator, arranger, and composer. She won third prize at the 1999 World Marimba Competition in Okaya, Japan, and performs internationally as a soloist and with the Jasmin Kolberg Trio.
View profileKunihiko Komori is a marimbist whose work spans contemporary repertoire, concertos, chamber music, and cross-disciplinary collaboration. He is a part-time lecturer in marimba and percussion chamber music at Aichi University of the Arts (as of May 2026) and an Adams Musical Instruments artist.
View profileTomoko Kusakari is a Japan-based marimba player whose work includes performance, recording, commissioning new repertoire, and teaching. On July 18, 1977, she and Mutsuko Fujii premiered Akira Miyoshi's Etude Concertante for Two Marimbas. She also commissioned Seiji Yokoyama's Divertimento for Two Marimbas, Kiyukyoku, with Mutsuko Fujii.
View profileSetsuko Kutsuno is a marimbist and percussionist who has been a member of the percussion section of Osaka Shion Wind Orchestra since 2025.
View profileJeannine Maddox-Vögele is a Swiss percussionist and educator whose range extends from traditional Swiss drumming to contemporary marimba repertoire. She earned her teaching and concert diplomas at the Konservatorium Zürich, studied marimba intensively for a year with Keiko Abe in Tokyo, and continued her training in the United States with Alan Abel of the Philadelphia Orchestra and in a masterclass with Bob Becker of Nexus.
View profileNanae Mimura is a Japanese marimbist and vibraphonist. She graduated from Kunitachi College of Music and earned a master's degree from the Boston Conservatory in 2000. Her awards include the Percussive Arts Society Marimba Solo Competition and the 1999 Concert Artists Guild Competition. She has released solo recordings in Japan and performed in more than 22 countries. She is a Yamaha Performing Artist and a lecturer at Showa University of Music (as of July 15, 2026).
View profileWilliam Moersch is a marimbist, orchestral percussionist, recording artist, and educator whose commissioning work has expanded the modern marimba repertoire. He taught at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign from 1998 to 2024 and is Professor Emeritus of Percussion. The Percussive Arts Society inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 2025.
View profileKatarzyna Myćka is a Polish marimbist, chamber musician, and educator. She studied in Gdańsk, Stuttgart, and Salzburg, then won first and audience prizes at the 1995 Luxembourg International Percussion Competition and first prize at the 1996 World Marimba Competition in Stuttgart. She founded the International Katarzyna Myćka Marimba Academy in 2003. She is Professor of Percussion at Folkwang University of the Arts (as of July 15, 2026), a post she took up for the 2023/24 winter semester.
View profileTakako Nagano is a marimbist, pianist, melodica player, jazz singer, and educator. Building on her classical training, she has expanded her work into jazz, improvisation, original compositions, and singing while continuing to perform and teach piano and marimba.
View profileGergely Nagy is a Stuttgart-based marimbist, percussion educator, and ensemble director. He heads the percussion department at the Stuttgart Music School and directs its large percussion ensemble.
View profileIsao Nakamura is a percussionist, marimba player, and educator known for premiering works dedicated to him by composers including Toshio Hosokawa and Klaus Huber. He taught at the University of Music Karlsruhe from 1992 to 2024 and is a guest professor at Kyoto City University of Arts and Aichi University of the Arts.
View profileMakoto Nakura is a New York–based marimbist and educator. In 1994, he became the first marimbist to win the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, and in 2001 he founded the ISGM New Music Commissioning Fund. He has served as a Specially Invited Visiting Professor at Toho College of Music since the 2026 academic year.
View profileFumito Nunoya is an Odate-born Japanese marimbist based in Germany, active as a soloist, recording artist, educator, and competition juror.
View profileRich O'Meara is a marimbist, percussionist, composer, and improviser based in Bethel, Connecticut. His marimba works include Restless and Wooden Music. He is also a founding member of Silent Orchestra, which creates and performs new scores for classic silent films.
View profileMoyuru Oda is a Japanese marimbist, percussionist, music educator, and author. A graduate of the percussion program at Kunitachi College of Music, Oda was listed as a part-time lecturer at Tokyo Seitoku University in a 2025 publisher biography and leads the Ongaku de Te o Tsunagō Project, which develops performances with musicians with disabilities in Japan and abroad. Recordings include DIVERTIMENTI – Marimba Alive! vol.2 with Junko Sakimura and Naoki Kaneta. Publications include Dagakki I-Ro-Ha and the 2025 co-authored Rhythm Basics and Enjoyable Accompaniment.
View profileAyami Okamura is a Kyoto-born marimba and percussion performer, educator, arranger, and composer based in Detmold, Germany. She teaches percussion at Hochschule für Musik Detmold and works across solo performance, new commissions, arrangements, and composition.
View profileHiroshi Chu Okubo is a percussionist, composer, and educator whose principal instruments include hand percussion, electronic percussion, and drums. He has performed and led workshops internationally and serves as head of the HCO MUSIC Group and an instructor at Tokyo School of Music Shibuya.
View profileMie Saito is a Japanese percussionist and marimbist and a first-prize winner at the 1993 Japan Wind and Percussion Competition. A freelance performer as of June 2025; percussion instructor for the 2024 and 2025 Kunitachi Open College scheduled programs; judge for the 42nd Percussion Newcomers Concerts fiscal 2026 program.
View profileRiriko Sakaguchi is a marimba and percussion player from Ina, Saitama. She graduated from Tokyo College of Music and completed its master's program, and has received prizes at the Italy Percussion Competition, IPEA International Percussion Competition, KOBE International Music Competition, and Tokyo College of Music Competition. She performs and teaches in solo, ensemble, wind-band, and orchestral settings.
View profileJunko Sakimura is a Japan-based marimba and cimbalom player whose work includes performances with the New Japan Philharmonic and the Saito Kinen Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa, an appearance on BS Japan's Ongaku Kosaten, recordings, and participation in international cimbalom congresses.
View profileEmmanuel Séjourné is a French composer, percussionist, and educator whose work ranges from classical to improvised music. His Concerto for Marimba and String Orchestra, commissioned and premiered by Bogdan Bácanu, has become a widely performed part of the marimba repertoire. He is head teacher of percussion at the Strasbourg Superior Academy of Music and Arts and associate professor at HEMU Lausanne (as of July 22, 2026). As a performer, he has premiered more than 100 works.
View profileRobert van Sice is a marimbist and percussion educator who has premiered more than 100 works for marimba. Four major works written for him are Peter Klatzow's Dances of Earth and Fire, Alejandro Viñao's Estudios de Frontera, Martin Bresnick's Grace, and James Wood's Spirit Festival with Lamentations. He is Lecturer in Percussion at Yale, where he joined the faculty in 1997, and also teaches at the Curtis Institute of Music (as of July 15, 2026). He retired from the Peabody Institute in May 2024 after more than 20 years there.
View profileJ. B. Smith is a percussionist, composer, educator, and conductor based in Australia. He is professor emeritus of music and former coordinator of percussion studies at Arizona State University, where he directed the Contemporary Percussion Ensemble.
View profileKai Stensgaard is a Danish marimbist, composer, and educator known for solo performance and six-mallet technique. His official site documents international touring, recordings, original compositions and arrangements, a six-mallet method book, and the concerto Concierto Mexicano.
View profileLeigh Howard Stevens is a marimbist, educator, recording artist, instrument designer, and the founder of Malletech. He developed an influential approach to four-mallet playing associated with the Stevens grip and one-handed rolls. His Method of Movement for Marimba is widely used in percussion education. As of July 22, 2026, Malletech credited him with nine United States patents for keyboard-percussion design.
View profileMika Stoltzman is a marimbist from Amakusa, Kumamoto, based in Boston. Her official biography documents performances at Carnegie Hall, PASIC, the Blue Note, international jazz and chamber-music festivals, and appearances as a soloist with orchestras in Japan, Europe, and the Americas. Her recordings include an arrangement and performance of Steve Reich's Tokyo/Vermont Counterpoint, projects with Steve Gadd, and Duo Cantando with clarinetist Richard Stoltzman. Chick Corea composed works for her, including a marimba version of his Piano Concerto No. 1, which she premiered with the Xalapa Symphony Orchestra.
View profileGordon Stout is a marimbist, percussionist, composer, and educator. His works include Two Mexican Dances for Marimba. He is Professor Emeritus of Music Performance at Ithaca College, specializing in percussion, marimba, and composition (as of July 15, 2026); he joined the college in 1980. Stout earned bachelor's and master's degrees and the Performers Certificate from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied percussion with James Salmon and John Beck and composition with Joseph Schwantner, Samuel Adler, and Warren Benson.
View profileAkiko Suzuki, also identified in Japanese sources as 鈴木明子, is a marimbist and teacher. Her marimba students include Naoko Takada, Junko Sakimura, Memmi Ochi, Nanae Mimura, and Mie Saito. A 2020 City of Komae publication documented her coaching the community music club Mallet and performing in its anniversary concert.
View profileNaoko Takada is a Los Angeles-based marimbist and educator. She won first prize at the 2002 Young Concert Artists International Auditions and received the S&R Washington Award in 2006. A Yamaha Performing Artist, she is active as both a performer and teacher.
View profileHonoka Tomita began piano at age three and marimba at age six. She received first prize at the 26th Japan Classical Music Competition, an Excellence Award and the Kobe Cultural Foundation Award at the 22nd KOBE International Music Competition, and second prize at the 20th Yangtze River Cup International Music Competition. She studied percussion and marimba with Shinichi Ueno, Itaru Akuhara, Hisae Hirako, and Junko Sakimura and graduated from Kunitachi College of Music.
View profileShe-e Wu is a percussionist, marimbist, composer, and educator. She has performed internationally as a soloist, commissioned and premiered new percussion works, and recorded solo and chamber repertoire including the first three Bach cello suites on marimba. Her compositions include Blue Identity, K-PAX, UP!, and What the Sun Would Say to the Sky. She is Associate Professor of Music and head of the percussion program at Northwestern University (as of July 15, 2026).
View profileAkiko Yamamoto is a marimba and percussion player who won first prize in the percussion division of the 19th Japan Wind and Percussion Competition in 2002.
View profileTakayoshi Yoshioka is a Japanese marimbist, percussionist, composer, and educator. His activities include performing his own marimba concertos, composing and publishing works, directing the Super Marimba Project, performing with Marimba Duo Wings, and teaching marimba.
View profileNancy Zeltsman is a Boston-based marimbist and educator known for solo and chamber performance, commissioning new repertoire, recording, and teaching. She has taught at Boston Conservatory at Berklee and Berklee College of Music since 1993, and was inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame in 2022.
View profileNebojsa Jovan Zivkovic is a Serbian composer and marimba and percussion concert artist. He earned master's degrees in composition, music theory, and percussion in Mannheim and Stuttgart and has developed parallel careers as composer and performer. His catalog includes solo and ensemble percussion music, two marimba concertos, and works for chamber ensemble, orchestra, voice, and cello.
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