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 city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County, California, Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley (California), Central Valley region. It covers a ...

. 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 mari ...

Collaborations

Vartan has worked with

Michael Colgrass Michael Charles Colgrass (April 22, 1932 – July 2, 2019) was an American and Canadian musician, composer, and educator. He was an associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre. Early life and education Colgrass was born in Brookfield, I ...

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 fuses ...

, 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 Y ...

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 ( ) (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 studies with Chou Wen-chung and M ...

, the Hilliard Ensemble, 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 the ...

. 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 com ...

, Erica Muhl, 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 (LA Phil) is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. The orchestra holds a regular concert season from October until June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from ...

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, United States, 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 commerci ...

, 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 ...

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

Wuhan, China Wuhan; is the capital of Hubei, China. With a population of over eleven million, it is the most populous city in Hubei and the eighth-most-populous city in China. It is also one of the nine national central cities and the second most livabl ...

, the Sierra Wind Symphony, the Helena Symphony Orchestra, 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. The platform organizes exhibitions that feature talks, art, technology, development, and live music performanc ...

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 ar ...

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. In May 2024, Albany Records wa ...

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

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 firs ...

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) or the early medieval period. After the ...

Awards and sponsorships

Lynn was nominated three times for a

Grammy The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

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. 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, United States. Founded in 1897 as a normal school, Southern Utah University now has over 1,800 graduates each year with baccalaureate and other graduate degrees from its ...

References

External links

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