The Marimba One and Department of Music sponsored the Heartland Marimba Festival and Workshop last week. This event was hosted and directed by Matthew Coley, marimba soloist and ISU lecturer in music and theatre.

The festival was a weeklong experience at Martha-Ellen Tye Recital Hall, Octagon Center for the Arts and Bandshell Park. The festival was free to the public, though donations was suggested.

According to Tenea Fabray, junior in music, the festival received close to $1,000 worth of donations.

“What helped was the support from the community,” said Coley. “The community coming out to the event helped the students perform well.

On Tuesday, Coley’s solo concert consisted of some classic American music, such as “My Favorite Things” and “And All that Jazz” with his guest cellist Julie Sturm, another lecturer in music and theatre.

“I thought it was a wonderful concert … when you get a whole group of them on stage, it is an amazing sound,” Sturm said. She said Coley is a natural musician and she enjoyed playing with him.

Coley and Sturm also played “Flow” by contemporary composer Steven Simpson.

“We had all the energy and improvisatory nature that it’s supposed to have,” Sturm said.

Coley and the students performed three pieces by contemporary composer Steven Simpson. The pieces were “Flow,” “Radioactive Octopus” and the world premiere of “Fluidity.”

“The players were really into the performance,” Simpson said. “The students were well prepared and engaged.”

John Linch, father of workshop participant Jacob Linch, a senior at Ames High School, was pleased by the performance.

“It was outstanding,” Linch said. “It was an incredible arrangement of iconic American music. It was terrific.”

The workshop involved students from Iowa State, Carnegie Mellon University, Creston High School and Ames High School as well as faculty from University of St. Thomas, Hamline University and Normandale Community College.

“All the learning and performing and being in that type of environment is very conducing for a musician,” said Michael Erman, junior in music technology. “It’s very one-on-one type of thing.”

Linch said he believed the workshop was helpful becuase it allowed his son to be around a lot of unique and wonderful players.

The participants in the workshop were able to experience the life of a professional musician.

“Part of the experience is getting a limit amount of time to prepare, that’s a professional environment, where you just receive the music two weeks ahead of time and the concert’s coming up in two weeks and you just have to be prepared,” Coley said.

Coley plans to expand the Marimba Festival and Workshop and get more students at Iowa State involved in the event.

“I think the main thing we’re trying to bring is a lot more awareness to the community,” Coley said.