Alumna to showcase four-mallet marimba technique Dec. 1

Kendra McLean, a Western Washington University Music alumna, will present a lecture recital on marimba performance at 4 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 1, in the Performing Arts Center Choir Room 16 on Western’s campus.

The presentation, which is free and open to the public, is the capstone experience for McLean’s doctorate from the University of Arizona. The lecture will be a technical demonstration for the marimba, and she will demonstrate how to improve four-mallet marimba technique using marimba chorales.

The recital’s repertoire will include "Lament" from Ney Rosauro's “Concerto for Marimba,” "Madrigal" from “My Lady White” by David Maslanka, “Giles” by Evelyn Glennie, and “Merlin” by Andrew Thomas.

McLean is currently finishing her doctorate in Musical Arts/Percussion Performance with a minor in Ethnomusicology at the University of Arizona. She holds a master’s degree in Musical Arts from Ohio University and a bachelor’s degree in Musical Arts from Western. She has performed with professional orchestras in Tucson, Arizona; Phoenix, Arizona; Federal Way, and Juneau, Alaska and was the principal percussionist and timpanist for the Sierra Vista Symphony Orchestra in Arizona. Solo performance venues include churches, adult care facilities, children's museums, universities, public schools, bookstores, and farmer's markets.

McLean was an undergraduate Percussion student at Western during the 1990s and studied with Patrick Roulet during his first tour on Western’s faculty as an adjunct instructor from 1994 to 2004. This lecture recital represents a Bellingham homecoming for both McLean and Patrick Roulet.

Roulet was hired on this fall as tenure-track faculty in Percussion after teaching at Towson State University in Baltimore, Maryland.

For more information, please contact Chris Casquilho, Western Washington University’s College of Fine and Performing Arts manager of Marketing and Special Events, at (360) 650-2829 or at chris.casquilho@wwu.edu.