Marimbist Plays Popular Arrangement Of Rhapsody In Blue

by Richard Veit

Janis Potter, one of America's most prominent marimba soloists, will present a Lyceum Series recital at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 21, in Meadows Recital Hall in Baylor University's Glennis McCrary Music Building. The program will feature Potter's popular arrangement for marimba of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.
A former percussionist with "The President's Own" United States Marine Band in Washington D.C., Potter is now on the faculty of George Washington University and the College of Southern Maryland. She holds bachelor's and master's degrees in music performance from The Juilliard School.
Potter is a recognized leader in percussion and marimba education. She directed the Juilliard Summer Percussion Seminar for its first five years and was a teaching artist for the Lincoln Center Institute of the Arts. She has expanded the repertoire for marimba by commissioning, transcribing and arranging new works.
Potter will open the Lyceum Series recital with Rhythmic Caprice by Leigh Howard Stevens, followed by her transcription of "On the Seashore" from Felix Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words. She also will play her transcription of four movements from the Lute Suite in E minor by Johann Sebastian Bach and the world premiere performance of Jonathan Mordechai Leshnoff's Run.
The recital is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Baylor School of Music at 710-3991.
The Lyceum Series is funded annually through the generosity of the Meadows Foundation of Dallas.