Fair Trade (2011/rev. 2020)

for Marimba Duo | Duration: 8.5 minutes

Fair Trade (2011/rev. 2020) was originally written for percussionists McKenzie Camp and Yi David Yang, two incredible marimba specialists at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. I wanted to approach this piece as a way to showcase both of their talents and not relegate them to simply high and low marimba parts. This was the first piece of music that I wrote after moving to the San Francisco Bay Area for grad school in 2011. I was spending a lot of time enjoying the city while sipping coffee at local cafes, and that served as inspiration for the title of this piece. I think the idea of “Fair Trade" captures the spirit of the piece well, as the two performers are constantly trading roles and passing the responsibility for the musical narrative between them equally. The piece is a loosely structured theme and variations with the thematic material trading between the performers.