February 16/17

Jane Boxall, percussion and poetry

Dream of a Common Language

Jane Boxall presents a varied program of percussion music and poetry, with guest artists Dan Gordon (saxophone) and Rose Chancler (piano).

Program to Include:

  • Brandon Nelson – Dhammapada for prepared vibraphone
  • Dinos Constantinides – Delphic Hymn for saxophone and percussion
  • Selections from Takashi Yoshimatsu – Pleiades Dances, arranged for percussion, piano and saxophone
  • Frederic Rzewski – To The Earth, for four flowerpots and speaking percussionist
  • Selections from Jane’s acclaimed poetry book, Parts Unknown

Jane Boxall

Jane Boxall, JaneBoxall.com, is an adventurous percussionist, working across diverse musical genres. She focuses on both rock drumming and art-music marimba, touring and recording as a soloist, collaborator and session player. Jane has performed in concert halls, art galleries, cafes, castles, kindergartens, hospitals, universities, forests and festivals from Rome to San Francisco, and Manhattan to France. Born in England and raised in Scotland, Jane completed her BA and MA in Music at the University of York (UK), and her Doctorate in Percussion Performance at the University of Illinois.

“Killer technique and inspired musicality”
Drum! magazine

 “She is pure fire”
Virago magazine

With pianist Rose Chancler, Jane is a founding member of Ricochet Duo; in 2011, Jane co-founded the non-profit music camp Girls Rock Vermont. Jane’s compositions for percussion ensemble are widely performed from Texas to Hong Kong; her studio recordings have received radio airplay across the United States, on the BBC and on the Dutch radio stations Concertzender and Radio Mona Lisa.  Jane’s recordings of Nancy Van de Vate’s marimba compositions are released on the Naxos label. Jane has shared stages and bills with Bradford Reed, Sheesham&Lotus, Vernon Reid, Myra Flynn, Gregory Douglass, The Life and Times, Brzowski, Cage, The Slackers, Les de Merle and Danny Seraphine. Jane has appeared with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Guildhall Symphony Orchestra, Prairie Ensemble and the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble. In 2012, Jane premiered Garry Jones’s Concerto for Park Bench and Orchestra with the Event In A Tent Festival Orchestra – “I’ve never heard a park bench played so passionately,” stated the composer.

Jane is one of a very limited number of marimba artists worldwide to have developed an 8-mallet technique. Her 2012 album, Zero to Eight Mallets, has been enduringly popular with percussionists and non-percussionists alike. An album review in the Percussive Arts Society’s magazine Percussive Notes stated: “Jane Boxall’s CD is an eclectic mix of 100 years’ worth of music masterfully performed on marimba…Throughout the recording, Boxall’s performance is consistently excellent.” Of the 0-8 mallet concert program, composer and percussionist Brian Johnson opined:  “it is highly interesting, entertaining and intelligent.”

Jane is deeply committed to the development of art music for percussion, and continues to seek and create innovative and adventurous programs. In 2013, Jane was the recipient of a grant from the Vermont Community Foundation, which enabled her to undertake the inaugural “Portable Percussionist” tour on foot from Canada to Massachusetts. Jane commissioned local composers to write “portable” concert pieces then hiked the Long Trail through the state of Vermont, stopping along the way to perform solo percussion recitals. Composer Dennis Bathory-Kitsz commented: “Jane Boxall’s Portable Percussionist was a brilliant presentation. She held the audience spellbound with the simplest of materials — rocks, sticks, pots, and even the zippers on her pack. One composition student later said, ‘My mind was completely blown. I have to re-think everything about composing’.”

Currently, Jane is touring internationally as a concert artist, session drummer and clinician. Jane plays and endorses Vic Firth sticks and mallets, Coe Percussion marimbas and District Drum Company snare drums.

“Impressive [indrukwekkende]”
Radio Mona Lisa, Netherlands

“Jane’s rhythmic sensibility is innovative and refreshing, which solidifies her as one of the most mindful and intuitive players in my book.”
Gregory Douglass

“Jane brings absolute technical mastery to everything she does.
What makes her exceptional is that she brings absolute presence, heart and feel too.”
Michael Chorney

“A consummate musician. A joy to see live.”
Alison Mazer

“Skill is necessary in a musician, but it’s not sufficient.
Jane plays with power and joy, and you feel it whether you’re onstage with her or out in the audience.”
Raphael Worrick

“A quintessentially natural performer. . .
Incredible presence. Her body sings with movement and pure joy.”
News-Gazette, Champaign IL

Percussionist Jane Boxall is “in a genre of one,” according to Burlington-VT magazine SevenDays. Jane plays contemporary-classical marimba repertoire with 0 to 8 mallets. In the jazz realm, Jane recreates the ragtime sounds of the 1920s on a vintage instrument. Chamber-music collaborations range from Ricochet Duo’s fresh piano-marimba repertoire to music for keyboard percussion and choir.

Audience members have compared Jane to Cozy Powell, Evelyn Glennie, Zappa marimbist Ruth Underwood, Sheila E., Carl Palmer and (when wielding 8 mallets) an octopus.

‘Marimba virtuoso Jane Boxall delighted a capacity audience’
CCANW.co.uk

 ‘A quintessentially natural performer. . . Incredible presence. Her body sings with movement and pure joy. She bowled [us] over with her musicality and her extramusical capacity to communicate.’
News-Gazette, Champaign IL