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Music is the most elusive art... Music for me occupies all the senses and from all the arts it is the one that is the hardest to define. - Ivana Bilic |
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Spring 2008 Featured Artist: Ivana BilicMaia from Marimba One chatted with Ivana this spring - Maia: Ivana, you describe your new mallet series in choral terms -- boy alto, singing tenor, dramatic baritone -- which evokes a very human feel for the mallets, and a unique imagery. I am curious as to what you "see" when you play? Ivana: There are many things that I feel when I take a mallet and play. The process of seeing the mallet, feeling it in my hand, striking it against a bar and taking the response from the vibrating bar is integral. I will try to describe my experiences, not necessarily in the order they appear: I see colours, I feel/see materials (silk, linen, velvet, georgette...), I see/feel the volume and density of the air which dances in the little universe I create while playing. Maia: Recently, watching you play timpani, I was struck by the way you seemed to be almost talking to the drum. It was if you were having a conversation -- a "percussive-with" moment rather than "percussive-against" moment. I've seen you do this too when you play marimba, as if you are listening for the response before you go on. Can you tell us a little about the interaction you are creating with your instruments?
... She is 2 years and 8 months old. My mother bought her a small xylophone and she imitates my movements. She even holds 4 mallets (I never taught her how) in a perfectly correct way. It is difficult to hold her focused but she knows where the note c is. When she beats her poor xylophone she does it in rhythm! And she can play piano (smoothly banging the little bars) if you ask her to do so. She recognises some pieces of classical music that she has heard in the animated films by W. Disney. I suppose every parent thinks his child is a genius, I am no different in this matter...
Maia: Do you have any works on commission at the moment? Upcoming events we won't want to miss? Ivana: I will have a very interesting cooperation with a string quartet, and another project with a trumpet player, for next year's Biennale contemporary festival in Zagreb. I will have a commissioned work for marimba (optional percussion) and trumpet. I have a preliminary confirmation to perform a two evening cycle concert playing all Bach Cello suites at a Baroque Music Festival. This is quite revolutionary since they are playing only on authentic instruments and are very rigid about authenticity in general. It is a great honor that they allowed me to enter the programme with Bach played in arrangement on a modern instrument. I hope I will manage to catch the interest of the public tv to make a video recording of it. I plan to record it for a cd later. I have appeared as a guest recording musician, and am currently working on some new solo recordings for a cd. I have done a lot of recordings for the radio and tv which have not been published on cds, but are regularly played on public stations in Europe (there is a network of European radio and tv stations which sell/buy or just simply exchange recordings). I am participating in Nancy Zeltsman's project with New Music for Marimba which is very interesting. I had a concert with Nancy in 2007, playing American marimba music - Schwantner, Druckman, Schuller, Thomas - and a duo-commissioned work by Croatian composer Ivana Kis, Morton's clock for MTV generation. Nancy's part required a necklace to be put on the bars for a buzzing sound which was quite weird for both of us but ... at the end it sounded interesting and the piece had quite a success. And, I am very much involved in teaching. We just had the first round of the Croatian Percussion Competition (I am in the jury). I am also going to have a permanent teaching position at the Zagreb Academy for Music starting Fall 2008.
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LINKS Illyria Arts (agent)
EXCLUSIVE VIDEO! Ivana sent us a series of high quality concert video segments from the last several years. Click on the titles below to open the movie files. Note: if you are using a slow connection, these may take a while to download. Ney Rosauro Concerto with Strings (1) - with the Dubrovnik Symphony
Ney Rosauro Concerto with Strings (2) - with the Dubrovnik Symphony Ney Rosauro Concerto with Strings (3) - with the Dubrovnik Symphony Philip Glass Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists Folk Art by Igor Kuljeric - at Zagreb Biennale 2006
IVANA BILIC MALLETS Ivana's new signature mallet line was just released in March 2008! Her artist mallet series was developed to emphasize the singing characteristic of the marimba by relating the sounds each mallet makes to human vocal qualities. This is a mid-weight series with six grades of hardness, and is currently available with rattan handles. Read more about Ivana's "singing mallets" and other Marimba One signature lines on the mallet page.
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Marimba One PO Box 786; Arcata, CA 95518, USA * Email percussion@marimbaone.com
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Listen to Igor Kuljeric/Ivana Bilic: Barocchiana - 3rd mvmt from Follow Me
