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Who is Ron Samuels? A Skilled Woodworker With An Ear For Sound
The designer and builder of perhaps the finest five-octave marimba in the world, Ron Samuels combines a reverence for fine woods with a trained ear from years of playing classical piano. Now his obsession is how to derive an ever higher level of sound quality while maximizing the playing experience for the musician.
To do this, he takes both high-tech and low-tech paths. The high-tech R&D thrust is an acoustic audio sound booth at the Marimba One workshop where fine microphones linked to computers pick up the various harmonics emanating from our resonators. By manipulating the size and shape of the marimba's resonators, desirable harmonics can be emphasized--and less desirable harmonics can be minimized. This is the process, for example, used to create Marimba One's Basso Bravo resonators, celebrated for their more powerful and warmer fundamental bass notes.
And the low-tech thrust? This involves Ron and his Marimba One associates walking jungle paths in remote corners of Central America to personally select the rosewood trees to be harvested for their precious rosewood. At a nearby mill, the wood is lovingly worked into rough key stock, under Ron's direction, and shipped to Marimba One's 'World Headquarters' in Arcata.
Ron says, "We are extremely selective and efficient in our harvest processes, maximizing quality while minimizing our impacts on the forest." The best of the trees will be the basis of the exquisite natural sound that typifies Marimba One's world-class instruments.
Master Marimba-Maker to Lecture In Europe
Want to know how to craft a large wooden percussion instrument with resonators? Then come to any one of three talks that Marimba One's founder, Ron Samuels, will be giving in London and Amsterdam this summer on "The Art of Marimba Making."
The fabled Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London's Barbican development will be Ron's first stop on Monday, June 28. His two-hour lecture begins at 11 a.m.
The next day, June 29, Ron goes crosstown to discuss the marimba-making art at the Royal College of Music on Prince Consort Road in southwest London, also starting at 11 a.m.
After a hop across the channel to Holland, Ron will end his lecture tour at the famed Zeltsman Marimba Festival at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam on Friday, July 2. His talk will begin at 9:30 a.m. You can check out details on our website: www.marimbaone.com
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