- Doing something new and putting that out to the world has a sort of mystery behind it, of, you know, people might not like this, or this might not be, you know, optimal, but that I don't, to me that's not an excuse not to do it, but that's even more of an excuse to try it out and see where that takes you.

And sometimes it's really magical.

(upbeat music) - [Tihda] My mom owned a restaurant and she had students from USF who studied opera working for her.

{\an1}So they would teach me things about music theory and I loved learning pop tunes, or like I remember when I learned the theme song to Free Willy you know, it was like, it was, it was cool like learning a magic trick kinda.

It wasn't until middle school when I started in the sixth grade band.

We all had to learn how to play the snare drum and learn how to play the bells.

I couldn't wait to like graduate up to the marimba.

So this instrument is made of long wooden bars that resonate and what makes it resonate are the resonators underneath it.

{\an1}And they've, they're made out of various materials, mostly aluminum.

- [Steph] As much as I don't like saying this, I would say that it's like a xylophone but bigger is usually how I say that.

But I also try to say it's, it's much deeper.

It's much more rich, much more resonant.

It's much larger.

And most people can kind of recognize that it's laid out like a piano.

- Oh, one question I did wanna have.

Okay.

So where is the apex point of this long rule?

- I would say it's right here - This?

Okay.

- Like the moment.

I was into sports for a while and at some point, sports were no longer expressive for me.

So at that point, when I started playing Marimba, that's when like the hard switch kind of happened.

I stopped every sport I was doing and I really just focused on music.

So I think it was that need to express myself when I was younger.

- Like that.

- Yeah.

- Cool.

Yeah.

{\an1}- I, I think modern marimba is an experiment.

Basically.

I wanted to have a concert series featuring marimba repertoire artists, and also incorporate like other mallet keyboard artists and just like invite these people to Sarasota, to perform.

And I would also you know, play and manage the organization.

As, as a young person like in high school and stuff like that, I didn't really realize how white the orchestral field is.

I just was really into the music.

But as I started going further into like having a career, I realized that there were a lot of white men and I didn't really have a lot in common with them as I was also growing.

And so I realized that I want to connect with especially people of color and make music with them and really connect with myself and who I am.

So it was really important for me to explore that.

My mom is a refugee from Laos and she came here in the seventies.

But I didn't learn about Lao history.

And I didn't learn about the secret war in Laos and kind of the Vietnam conflict at all during school.

And my heritage wasn't really celebrated.

- [Steph] I think the tone of modern Marimba {\an1}is really about reclaiming musical voices.

You know, there's always this fight in my head of, I did four years of training at a conservatory and I trained very rigorously.

{\an1}And I think I trained very well in understanding and getting a grip on the Western style, but coming into my own artistic voice, {\an1}it's always that question of how much of my expression has been assimilated and how much of it is still my own.

So nowadays as a black composer, you know I enjoy aspects of the Western style.

I enjoy aspects of the form, of the technique but I try to infiltrate that tradition with qualities that are intensely and specifically black.

And I think that in my music, that juxtaposition shines.

And I think that it, it creates an aesthetic that's a bit different than just Western music or just black music in meeting somewhere in the middle.

(suitcase closing) - This concert has been in the works for a few months now and I've been sitting with the music for a while.

So like rehearsing and finally putting it together after all these months is pretty exciting.

{\an1}So people in like the marimba world are not used to playing for sold out audiences.

It's like kind of a joke in like the percussion community that like, {\an1}you know like nobody goes to marimba concerts.

And yeah, part of this is like trying {\an1}to change that narrative.

(marimba music) - [Steph] My creative process to develop the program and the flow of this program was really thinking about the purpose of the concert first, which is okay.

{\an1}We're place making so what does that look like?

So how am I going to make a place for me, for other black artists to thrive in this scene?

And the first thing I thought was okay, all black composers.

And the second thing I thought of, okay, we have the the blackness that is so important to display.

Now, what about that blackness?

But then I thought, okay, multi-generational so I want music that's old, old, old, and music that's brand new.

(marimba music) (audience applauding) Welcome to tonight's concert.

I'm so, so happy you're here.

The first piece you just heard was {\an1}Lift Every Voice and Sing, which is known as the black national anthem.

My hope is that we can create spaces {\an1}where black artists feel comfortable taking risks, because, you know, we see it in history.

The first people to do the work of liberating ourselves will be us.

(slow gospel music) They get goosebumps, you know, when people hear music that is honest.

I think that they know that it's honest.

Bell Hooks said something to the sorts of, The role of art is to do more than just tell it as it is, but also to imagine what's possible.

So I think that the more conversations can be sparked from a concert, the more that we have hope {\an1}to changing public policy.

♪ Amen ♪ - Recently, I had a death threat and had to navigate that for the first time.

And it's never gotten that bad for me.

And just kind of seeing the ugliness of people's, I don't know, hatred of people of color just to see it being {\an1}acted it out so openly and violently was shocking to me, 'cuz it's always been kind of this undercurrent kind of thing.

I'm still recovering.

And I think every day I really make space for me to to let it be and feel those feelings and like how to, like let it ride out and say, {\an1}okay, what can I control?

What can I not control?

{\an1}And then go about my day.

The long term vision for modern marimba is for what we do to be normalized throughout our industry.

You know, honestly, it's a calling.

It's weird that I feel like I've, I was I feel like I'm supposed to be doing this.

And the series of things that have happened has led me down this road and I feel like I'm in the right place.

So I feel like I'm doing the right thing.

I'm still doing the right thing.

I'm just gonna keep doing it.

(upbeat music plays)