by Sage Kluge
Kevin Bobo is a famous composer known for his marimba skills. He is a professor of percussion at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music additionally he’s a professor of percussion at Kansas University. The current middle school band director, Daniel Weinberg, attended Indiana University. In that time he had private lessons with Bobo for four semesters out of the seven semesters that he attended.
Some of the pieces he’s wrote are a bit random but creative; they are all enjoyable, Kevin Bobo sews his personality with his music.
He is most famous for his Master of Music degree he received in 1999, his Bachelor of Music degree he received in 1997, his interesting behavior, and stories behind his music.
Weinberg spent a lot of time with Bobo in their one hour lessons. Lessons are student led, as he wants the student to push themselves to their own limits. Bobo starts each of this lessons the same way.
Weinberg reminisced , “He focuses on musicality, snare and mallets. We’d play marimba and actually make it sound like music not just play a piece.” By doing this, Bobo got the students to drive themselves to be better.
Weinberg brought in a solo piece that he’d been working on at the time focused the lesson on that piece for the entire hour. During these lessons, Weinberg noticed that Bobo enjoys what he does with music, as well as making it enjoyable for his students.
Weinberg stated “He’s a really goofy person, he’s super intelligent, he likes to tell a lot of jokes as an educational skill and to make his students feel comfortable. He’s serious when he needs to be and takes his music very seriously.”
When Bobo teaches his students, he also teaches himself everyday to keep getting better and better on his own. Bobo has written many music pieces that he is proud of, including a new snare piece of his that’s recently been released, entitled “Tantrum”. Tantrum was released three to four years ago. Including a new addition to Tantrum that has been released on September 12th, 2018.
It takes more time to compose a marimba solo or an ensemble piece because these include more then just rhythms, like a snare piece could have, especially when is more then one marimba or an ensemble.
“Swarm” came out on December 8th, 2017 but it’s hard to get tired of quality instrumental music like Kevin Bobo’s. Bobo plays all kinds of percussion instruments, and his ensembles consist of marimba, xylophones, vibes, snares, toms, and more.
He’s one of the best mallet players in world but he still practices a lot, that has got to tell a person something.