Lynn Vartan is an American

percussionist A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

. She began performing as a child in

Fresno, California Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, makin ...

. Her principal instrument is the

marimba The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...

Collaborations

Vartan has worked with

Michael Colgrass Michael Charles Colgrass (April 22, 1932 – July 2, 2019) was an American-born Canada-based musician, composer, and educator. Life and career Colgrass was born in Brookfield, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. His musical career began in Chicag ...

Vinny Golia Vinny Golia (born March 1, 1946) is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist specializing in woodwind instruments. He performs in the genres of contemporary music, jazz, free jazz, and free improvisation. Career As a composer, Golia fuse ...

, Arthur Jarvinen,

Ursula Oppens Ursula Oppens (born February 2, 1944) is an American classical concert pianist and educator. She has received five Grammy Award nominations. Biography Ursula Oppens was born on February 2, 1944, in New York City into a highly musical family fr ...

Joan Tower Joan Tower (born September 6, 1938)http://www.schirmer.com/default.aspx?TabId=2419&State_2872=2&ComposerId_2872=1605 Biography on Schirmer is a Grammy-winning contemporary American composer, concert pianist and conductor. Lauded by ''The New York ...

Glen Velez Glen Velez (born 1949) is a four-time Grammy winning American percussionist, vocalist, and composer, specializing in frame drums from around the world. He is largely responsible for the increasing popularity of frame drums in the United States an ...

, Xtet,

James Newton James W. Newton (born May 1, 1953) is an American jazz and classical flutist. Biography He was born in Los Angeles, California, United States. From his earliest years, James Newton grew up immersed in the sounds of African-American music, inclu ...

Chinary Ung Chinary Ung ( km, អ៊ុង ឈីណារី ) (born November 24, 1942 in Takéo, Cambodia) is a composer currently living in California, United States. Career After arriving in the US in 1965 to study clarinet, he turned to composition ...

the Hilliard Ensemble The Hilliard Ensemble was a British male vocal quartet originally devoted to the performance of early music. The group was named after the Elizabethan miniaturist painter Nicholas Hilliard. Founded in 1974, the group disbanded in 2014. Although ...

, the Tambuco Percussion Ensemble and Grammy award-winning

Southwest Chamber Music Southwest Chamber Music is a chamber music ensemble (chamber ensemble) based in Los Angeles County, California. The organization was founded in 1987 by the artistic director Jeff von der Schmidt and the executive director Jan Karlin. One of th ...

. She has commissioned and/or performed countless new works for percussion by composers such as Donald Crockett,

William Kraft William Kraft (September 6, 1923 – February 12, 2022) was an American composer, conductor, teacher, timpanist, and percussionist. Biography Early life and education (1923–1954) Kraft was born in Chicago, Illinois. He was awarded two Anton Seid ...

, Steve Hoey,

Veronika Krausas Veronika Judita Krausas (born 1963) is a Canadian composer who lives and works in the United States. Biography She was born in Sydney, Australia but grew up in Canada after the age of four. Her diplomas in music education and performance were co ...

Erica Muhl Erica Muhl (born October 26, 1961) is an American composer and conductor who is president of Berklee College of Music. She formerly served as dean of the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy and was previously dean of the University of Southe ...

, Sean Heim, Jeff Holmes, Keith Bradshaw and Shaun Naidoo.

Solo performances

As a recital soloist, Vartan has been featured on the

Los Angeles Philharmonic The Los Angeles Philharmonic, commonly referred to as the LA Phil, is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at th ...

Green Umbrella Series, the Different Trains Series, at universities in residence all over the United States and on the Music at the Court series in

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. I ...

, where she produced her own solo percussion concerts. As a

concerto A concerto (; plural ''concertos'', or ''concerti'' from the Italian plural) is, from the late Baroque era, mostly understood as an instrumental composition, written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble. The typi ...

soloist, Vartan has performed with various orchestras including the Hubei Opera and Dance Company of

Wuhan, China Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei Province in the People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the ninth-most populous Chinese city and ...

, the Sierra Wind Symphony, the

Helena Symphony Orchestra The Helena Symphony Orchestra (HSO) is an American orchestra based in Helena, Montana. Founded in 1955, the Helena Symphony plays the majority of its concerts at the grand Helena Civic Center and in the summer performs at Carroll College presenti ...

, the Orchestra of Southern Utah,

, as well as premiering new concertos by both American and Chinese composers.

International projects

Vartan has participated in cultural exchange projects such as the “Ascending Dragon” Project in Vietnam, "The Dream of Helen" project in China and the “East Meets West” project designed around her as a soloist in

in 2014. In June 2020, Vartan was featured in the

Visual Collaborative Visual Collaborative is an American festival and publishing platform highlighting the intersections of people, commerce, and innovation. Acclaim for its social impact in humanities, it was featured by VOA, for advancing the cause of humanities and ...

electronic catalog, under the ''Eta Carinae '' series, where she was interviewed alongside other artists from around the world.

Recordings

As a recording artist, Vartan has appeared on the

ECM New Series ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music) is an independent record label founded by Karl Egger, Manfred Eicher and Manfred Scheffner in Munich in 1969. While ECM is best known for jazz music, the label has released a variety of recordings, and ECM's a ...

Albany Records Albany Records is a record label that concentrates on unconventional contemporary classical music by American composers and musicians. It was established by Peter Kermani in 1987 and is based in Albany, New York. See also * List of record la ...

Cuneiform Records Cuneiform Records is a record label in Silver Spring, Maryland. Founded in 1984, the label releases an mixture of musical styles, all with a Rock in Opposition aesthetic, including progressive jazz, jazz fusion, the Canterbury scene, and electr ...

Bridge Records Bridge Records is an independent record label that specializes in classical music located in New Rochelle, New York. History A classical guitarist, David Starobin recorded the Boccherini Guitar Quintet in E minor in the 1970s. This was his first ...

New World Records New World Records is a record label that was established in 1975 through a Rockefeller Foundation grant to celebrate America's bicentennial (1976) by producing a 100-LP anthology, with American music from many genres.Cambria Cambria is a name for Wales, being the Latinised form of the Welsh name for the country, . The term was not in use during the Roman period (when Wales had not come into existence as a distinct entity). It emerged later, in the medieval period, a ...

Awards and sponsorships

Lynn was nominated three times for a

Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

with the Southwest Chamber Music for “Best Classical Album of the Year” and "Best Small Ensemble with or without a conductor" for ''Chávez: Complete Chamber Music, Vol. 3''. and for the “Latin Classical Album of the Year” for

’s ''Complete Encounters Series''. Lynn is endorsed by the Paiste Corporation, Remo Inc. and Marimba One.

Other work

Vartan is the percussionist for

, the violin/percussion Duo 61/4 which she founded with Shalini Vijayan, and a duo percussion group Exacta that she formed with Tambuco’s

Miguel Gonzalez --> Miguel is a given name and surname, the Portuguese and Spanish form of the Hebrew name Michael (given name), Michael. It may refer to: Places *Pedro Miguel, a parish in the municipality of Horta and the island of Faial in the Azores Islands ...

. As of 2015, she is currently the Director of Percussion at

Southern Utah University Southern Utah University (SUU) is a public university in Cedar City, Utah. Founded in 1897 as a normal school, Southern Utah University now graduates over 1,800 students each year with baccalaureate and graduate degrees from its six colleges. ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vartan, Lynn American percussionists Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American marimbists American women percussionists