The Marassa Duo (James Armstrong and Nicholas Papador) recently completed a tour of the Northeastern United States presenting ground-breaking and exciting chamber music to a diverse range of listeners and venues.

The tour began with an appearance at the Central New York Day of Percussion on April 22 at Onondaga Community College (Robert Bridge, host).  For their morning clinic, the duo performed “Marassa I” from the debut CD, speaking in detail about Afro-Haitian invocations and Vodou Petro rhythms and how they are interwoven into the chamber percussion duo composition.  The group uses itself as an example of entrepreneurial ways young performers can diversify in the current music marketplace. The duo performed a short set on the afternoon concert, sharing the stage with number of distinguished guests.

On April 24-25 the group headed to the Boston area for a residence at the Driscoll School in Brookline, MA (Dorathea Kastanas, host).  The group performed a recital in the Black Box theatre and gave two clinic/performances at the school for students of varying ages.  The group talked about a variety of topics including percussion instrument classifications, instrument histories, and instrument constructions as well as describing career trajectories in music.  Needless to say, the sticker and product giveaways were a big hit among the students.

Marassa Duo gave a public recital in Cambridge on the evening of the 25th at the Lily Pad (formerly Zeitgeist Gallery).  The reception and turnout was quite strong and there were a number of friends and colleagues in attendance.

On Thursday, April 27, the duo gave a performance clinic at Queens College in New York City (Michael Lipsey, host).  For this session, the group performed “Songroads” and discussed the processes of learning composite 3 Batá performance and the compositional process of creating a chamber piece from ceremonial Afro-Cuban songs.  Carlos “Go Go” Gomez, an initiated performer in the  music of Santería, was on hand for the clinic.  Performing segments of the piece with Carlos signing the source material was an unexpected treat for those in attendance.

On April 28, Marassa Duo made its New York recital debut at the Church of Christ and St. Stephens in Manhattan near Lincoln Center.  The event attracted a diverse crowd of music enthusiasts and performers.  Many were pleased with the sonic results Marassa Duo presented, using Afro-Haitian, Afro-Cuban, concert marimba, contemporary classical and jazz styles in a single recital setting.