Live from Hochstein: Melodious Mallets with the RPO Marimba Band

The RPO Marimba band plays a great program, with music by Khachaturian, Barber, Tchaikovsky, and more.

WXXI and Hochstein School of Music and Dance present Melodious Mallets with the RPO Marimba Band on April 27th at 12:10 p.m. on Classical 91.5, 90.3, and streaming online at wxxi.org.


Described as "one of the Rochester area's unique and notable treasures" (SUNY Brockport The Stylus), the RPO Marimba Band was established in 1979 by Bill and Ruth Cahn and John Beck and is comprised of members of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra's current Percussion Section. The group continues a half-century of tradition that was established in the 1950s by the Eastman School of Music's Marimba Masters.

Specializing in music written and arranged for the melodic percussion instruments, the RPO Marimba Band primarily features ragtime xylophone pieces and novelty music from the early decades of the 20th century, many Latin and jazz tunes. The band performs on two marimbas, vibraphone, steel drum, drum set, and various percussion instruments.

Since their formation, they have performed in venues throughout western New York, including the Eastman Theatre, WHAM-TV, WROC-TV, WXXI FM, Live from Hochstein, the Xerox International Jazz Festival, Rochester City Hall, Monroe County Office Building, RIT's Ingle Auditorium, SUNY Brockport, Ontario Beach Park, Hamlin Beach Park, Perinton Amphitheatre, Camp Good Days and Special Times, Honeoye Lake Gazebo, RPO Concerts in the Park Series and many other outdoor festivals.

Hosted by Classical 91.5's Mona Seghatoleslami, Live from Hochstein is the longest running live broadcast concert series in Western New York. Broadcast live from the Hochstein Performance Hall (50 North Plymouth Ave. in Rochester), the series presents performances by some of the finest artists from the Rochester area’s musical community. Each of these free “brown bag” concerts runs from 12:10-12:50 p.m., giving downtown business people, teachers, families, students and friends an opportunity to enjoy classical music during their lunch hour.

Live from Hochstein repeats that same day at 10 p.m. on Classical 91.5, 90.3, and streaming online at wxxi.org.


To learn more about the series, and to see a complete schedule of performances, visit http://wxxi.org/hochstein/.