Beating their own drums -- Students, local composer produce musical magic

More than just notes on a sheet, music has turned into a creative and exciting experience for children in the Marimba Magic Ensemble, a group of Rivers Music school students who will be traveling to Texas to perform the marimbas at an international music teachers' convention.

As part of the preparation, the Marimba Magic Ensemble will be giving a pre-tour concert on Oct. 29 at 4 p.m. at the Berwind Building, located at the Rivers School, 333 Winter St. in Weston. They will be performing an original composition by Wellesley resident and MIT professor, Dr. Peter Child -- "Arrows to the Sun," written especially for the marimbas.

"These kids are phenomenal," said teacher and director of the ensemble, Sarah Tenney, who instructs a class in playing the marimbas at the Rivers Music School. "Not many kids who do play music practice for a whole year the way these kids have (for this performance), and at this level of complexity."

The eight children involved, two of whom are Wellesley residents, have been Tenney's students since they were about 5 years old. Ond of them is Maddie Child, Child's 9-year-old daughter, and the other is 11-year-old Christopher Holownia, guest pianist of the Marimba Magic Ensemble and student of A. Ramon Rivera, the chairman of the piano department at the Rivers Music School. Tenney said the children, now ages 8 to 14, have been rehearsing since last year.

"They heard the performance of this piece ("Arrows to the Sun") by the original group I taught, and they were inspired," said Tenney. Which is why the group wanted to learn it for themselves and perform it, she said.

"Arrows to the Sun" is based on a story by Gerald McDermott, adapted from a native indian Pueblo legend. Scored for eight players, the work features marimbas, vibraphones, piano and drumming.

"This is a very important and special branching out for me, in terms of incorporating a kind of spontaneity, color and vividness reflected in this composition for children," said Child, who is a professional composer, and currently teaches music composition at MIT. "This is a piece I'm very excited about. It's unbelievable to work with these children. They don't have musical prejudices the way adult musicians sometimes have."

Child composed "Arrows to the Sun" for the Rivers Music School, and its premiere performance was held at the 1992 seminar on Contemporary Music for the Young, performed by the original ensemble, then known as the Magical Marimbas.

The pre-tour concert will benefit the group's upcoming trip to Dallas, Texas on Nov. 9-12, where they will perform at the American Orff-Schulwerk Association National Conference, celebrating the centenary of Carl Orff, an Austrian composer who developed a way of teaching music that is now used in schools throughout the United States. The ensemble will also assist Tenney and Child in the presentation of their workshops. Tenney will be giving a workshop entitled "Building music skills through improvisation," and Child will be presenting a workshop on composing for children.

Sunday's program also includes a performance of Tenney's "Rotating Rotos" for six roto tom drums, and John McDonald's "Sonatina for Toy Piano," performed by the composer himself, a Tufts University professor on a toy piano signed by world-famous composer John Cage.