Xylophone fans unite. Bob Becker, a world-renowned xylophonist, will perform at the University of Delaware with the sixth annual Bob Becker Ragtime Xylophone Institute.
Becker is generally considered to be one of the world's premier virtuoso performers on the xylophone and marimba, according to a University of Delaware press release.
Ragtime, which predates jazz, is considered the first truly American musical genre. It began as dance music and was later published as sheet music for piano, reaching the peak of its popularity around the turn of the 20th century. While better known for piano, ragtime on xylophone became popular in the early 1920s partly because it recorded so well on early wax-cylinder recordings.
The sixth annual Bob Becker Ragtime Xylophone Institute is being held this year from July 28 to August 2 at the university. Participants in the institute travel from all over the world to work on the art of Ragtime Xylophone interpretation and improvisation.
Becker's experience spans nearly all of the percussion-based musical disciplines. He has been percussionist for the Marlboro Music Festival and timpanist with the Marlboro Festival Orchestra under Pablo Casals.
For several years Becker was a percussionist with the Paul Winter Consort, and he has performed and recorded with Gil Evans, Steve Gadd, Paul Horn and Chuck Mangione.
Becker has appeared as a tabla soloist in India and has accompanied many of the major artists of Hindustani music. He is also a founding member of the Flaming Dono West African Dance and Drum Ensemble in Toronto and a founding member of the percussion ensemble Nexus.
As a member of Nexus, he has appeared as soloist with the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Chicago Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic and the London Symphony.
The ragtime concert is offered free from the University of Delaware Community Music School on August 2 at 8pm in Puglisi Orchestra Hall, Roselle Center for the Arts in Newark. Call 831-2577 for more information.
