By Signpost Staff
The Placitas Artists Series is presenting Mostly Marimba—Music for Percussion Quartet, led by Alexis Corbin. The concert will be held on March 23 at 3 p.m. at Las Placitas Presbyterian Church.
According to a press release, Alexis and Hovey Corbin have been performing together since 1997, playing music ranging from marimba bands to musical theater, heavy-metal vaudeville to calypso, and church services to dive bars. The Mostly Marimba program will include works by classical composers John Cage and Carolyn Shaw and jazz standards like Morgan Lewis’ How High the Moon and Juan Tizol’s Caravan. The ensemble plays a variety of instruments, including marimbas, steel pans (also known as steel drums), and various household objects.
Alexis Corbin, the concert’s organizer, is the executive director and weekday program host of classical music radio station KHFM. She performs with diverse ensembles throughout New Mexico, including the Santa Fe Symphony, Opera Southwest, and New Mexico Philharmonic. Hovey is the director of bands at the Albuquerque Academy and is co-director of the Albuquerque Junior Symphony. He performs with Musica Antigua de Albuquerque, Links! Percussion Ensemble, Skümbaag, and the New Mexican Marimba Band. Jeff Cornelius played principal percussion with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra from 1986 to 2011 and has also performed with the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra and the Santa Fe Symphony. Alan Zimmerman has performed with a variety of ensembles, including the New Japan Philharmonic and the New Mexico-based Death Convention Singers.
Individual concert tickets can be purchased at PlacitasArts.org, where the concert program, musician bios and more are available. K-12 students accompanied by an adult ticket holder may attend for free.
Concertgoers are encouraged to come early for a 1:30 p.m. talk about the program, followed by a 2 p.m. visual artists reception in the Fellowship Hall at the church, located at 7 Paseo De San Antonio Rd. Admission to the talk and the gallery is free. The exhibit will feature the works of Dale Jenssen, Cherie Martin-Irwin, Logan Ortwerth and Mary Louise Skelton.
The current exhibit is open to the public during church gallery hours, Tuesday-Friday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. These artists are on exhibit from March 7 through April 17. All artwork on display is available for purchase.