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Our Rainbow Nation was written for the West Coast Youth Orchestra in 2016 and is for two African marimba soloists, each doubling kalimbas, and Youth Orchestra, consisting of double woodwinds without bassoons, alto saxophone, French horn, trumpet, trombone, tuba, 3 percussionists and strings.
The work is in 3 movements: Allegro e Spiritoso, Adagio and Allegro Molto. The soloists play marimbas in the outer movements and kalimbas in the central movement.
I consider this to be a ‘trans-cultural’ piece, not only by combining the African solo instruments and Djembes with a Western orchestra, but also percussion from other parts of the world, such as bongos, rain-stick, maracas, cabassa, etc. In addition, the overall style seeks to combine African-style rhythms and melodic fragments in a symphonic setting. By combining and fusing styles in this fashion, I wish to portray how different cultures can live together in harmony.
