Paul Smadbeck and Gordon Stout
The Story of "Rhythm Song"
Focus Day Performance
Thursday, 1:00 p.m.

 Paul Smadbeck received both B.M. and M.M. degrees in Percussion Performance from Ithaca College where he studied under William Youhass and Gordon Stout.  He also studied marimba with Leigh Howard Stevens and Dr. J. C. Combs. During the early 1980's, Paul emerged as one of the nation’s leading classical marimba soloists, and, inspired by Leigh's breathtaking innovations in lateral technique, began composing etudes and other works, which quickly became performance favorites, earning a permanent place in the marimba repertoire worldwide. His compositions "Rhythm Song" and "Virginia Tate" are acknowledged as among the most popular marimba compositions ever written. In 2010, Paul premiered his most recent work for marimba, “Fernando’s Waltz,” at the Marimba 2010 Festival at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

Gordon Stout is a Professor of Percussion at the School of Music at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York where he has taught percussion since 1980. A composer as well as a percussionist who specializes on marimba, he has studied composition with Joseph Schwanter, Samuel Adler, and Warren Benson, and percussion with James Salmon and John Beck.  As a composer/recitalist, Stout has premiered many of his original compositions -- several of which have already become standard repertoire for marimbists worldwide -- as well as works by other contemporary composers.  A frequent lecturer/recitalist for PAS, Gordon Stout has appeared as a featured marimbist at twelve PASICs. Gordon was on the jury of the 1st and 2nd Leigh Howard Stevens International Marimba Competitions (1995 and 1998), the 2nd and 3rd World Marimba Competitions in Okaya, Japan (1999) and Stuttgart, Germany (2002), and the International Marimba Competition in Linz, Austria (2006).

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