2019 Day of Percussion
WI Percussive Arts Society
Mukwonago High School
Saturday April 13, 2019
Rebecca Kite
"The Secrets of Reading Music" - Marimba Fundamentals
11:00am | Performing Arts Center
Rebecca Kite has been performing as a marimba soloist for over twenty-five years, appearing in concert and in clinics across the United States and in Europe, Japan and Latin America.
Her recent performances include appearances at the Festival of Vibraphone and Marimba in Lima, Peru in January 2011, the Cultural Foundation for the Arts in Patagonia, Argentina in July 2006, and in Valencia, Spain in July 2004. Her two South American tours in 2003 and 2004 included performances and master classes in Argentina, Brazil and Chile. She has performed in such venues as Uporo Hall in Tokyo, The Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Vredenberg Hall in The Netherlands, and Sundin Hall in St. Paul, Minnesota, as well as numerous colleges, high schools, art museums and non-traditional venues across the United States.
In addition to her performance career, Kite is an internationally known percussion educator. She has taught in the master class setting and has worked with percussion students of all ages. Kite has been Artist in Residence at the Cultural Foundation for the Arts in Rio Negro Patagonia, Argentina (September 2000), The University of Miami School of Music (fall semester 1999) and at SUNY Fredonia. She has appeared as both a marimba and percussion clinician and guest artist at numerous high schools and colleges in the United States and Japan, including Toho Conservatory, Interlochen, Indiana University School of Music, The University of Missouri at Kansas City Conservatory of Music, and The University of Maryland.
Kite has received two Master Fellowships as a marimba soloist from the Indiana Arts Commission and was a finalist in the 1986 Pro Musicus Competition. In 1999, she won an American Composers Forum grant to fund the commission of a new marimba piece by Bruce Hamilton.
Her music may be heard on her two solo marimba recordings, "Across Time" (1993) and "Prism" (1996) both published by GP Percussion and available through Amazon.com, iTunes and international percussion specialty shops.
In addition to performing, Kite has strong interests in two areas that enrich her performance and presentations: Japanese musical aesthetics and musical instrument acoustics and design.
Kite studied Japanese (both the language and literature) at the Indiana University East Asian Studies Department to give greater depth to her understanding of Japanese culture and music. Ongoing work includes study of Buddhism, Shinto and Zen and their influence on Japanese music and aesthetics.