UPDATE: My mallets are now available at Mostly Marimba, Lone Star Percussion, and Steve Weiss Music!

I am excited to announce the release of my new signature series marimba mallet! I’ve spent the last year with Malletech designing my ideal “go-to” mallet, one that speaks in all ranges of the marimba. The mint green “IT13” mallets made their debut at PASIC 2014.

I wanted to design a mallet that covered the sound spectrum of my marimba music; fat low sounds, clear melodic sounds, and delicate soft sounds. To do so, I decided on a rubber core with synthetic blend yarn, creating a subtle two-tone sound. I’ve been using my mallets on the road lately, both in solo and small chamber music settings, and the feedback has been great which is SO EXCITING to hear!

Not only did Malletech and I spend time getting the sound just right, we also spent time on how the mallet feels in the hand. The mallets are of medium weight and have a slight rebound to them, making faster passages feel easier and more fluid to play.

If you’re going to PASIC this year, plan on stopping by the Mostly Marimba booth to check them out! I think you’ll dig what we came up with.

JOIN CONSORTIUM for DRUM SET SOLOIST w/ PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE

I LOVE DRUM SET! I’ve been composing more for the instrument lately, like Heat Stroke, a new piece for drum set solo + tape that I wrote for Aaron Staebell’s Solo Drum Solo project. Hold Fast, a duo for vibes and drum set, was also recently premiered by percussionists Luis Rivera and Justin Alexander, who will record the piece this summer.

I’m currently writing a large scale piece for DRUM SET SOLOIST w/ PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE. This one is going to rock!! The consortium is organized by Dr. Colin Hill of Tennessee Tech University, who is currently looking for a few more people to support this project to make it happen. If you’d like to join the consortium, support me and this new piece, and have exclusive performing rights before the piece is made available to the public, contact Dr. Hill at cjhill@tntech.edu. The piece will be appropriate for both a college percussion ensemble concert or recital, FYI.

I’m really looking forward to PASIC and hope to see you many of you there!

-Ivan