What We Can Learn from the Repertoire at GPIMC 2026
After looking through the repertoire at TROMP, I decided my repertoire tracking habit needed another project to avoid practicing for the upcoming Heartland Tour next week. So now, I have turned to the 2026 Great Plains International Marimba Competition. Between the High School Solo, Open Solo, and Open Duo categories, there was plenty to explore. And, yes, Merlin made it onto the list again… surprisingly less than expected.
What interested me most was how differently players approached the available space in their programs. Familiar marimba works appeared alongside Bach, adaptations of piano repertoire, and even song arrangements. For students choosing their next piece, this is a useful collection to spend some time with. For teachers, it gives us a chance to talk about what a program can show beyond how many notes we can successfully fit into a 50 minute program.
I organized the published live-round programs into a repertoire spreadsheet. Across 30 soloists and eight duos, there were 91 repertoire listings in the semi-final and final. Grouping movements from the same larger work together gives us 56 distinct works.
Just as a warning, GPIMC does have some required repertoire: in the Open Solo competitors had to include Bach in the semi-final, and each division had a compulsory final selection. Those requirements naturally affect the numbers. Bach, Jung and Michael Crane were not simply the candidates favorite composers. I do want to give a special note that Crane’s work might be one of the most underrated pieces at this competition that I wish the competitors spent more time with and I hope others will play in the years to come.
For the solos, Joseph Schwantner’s Velocities appeared four times across the solo divisions. Andrew Thomas’s Merlin, Jacob Druckman’s Reflections on the Nature of Water, and Keiko Abe’s Dream of the Cherry Blossoms each appeared twice.
The High School final was especially interesting to me because of its range of adaptations and arrangements. Aeneas Yu programmed Liszt’s La Campanella, arranged by Anders Elten, which for a HS student this is an insanely impressive feat. Julian Covarrubias Favela played Variations on Rhapsody in Blue, arranged by Nicolas Zavattero, another crazy pull, and Candice Cao chose Robert Oetomo’s arrangement of Pining for the Spring Breeze. Alongside these were original marimba selections by Pius Cheung, Keiko Abe, and Ludwig Albert.
As someone who enjoys adaptations, I was happy to see so many young players picking these solos instead of everyone copy pasting Khan Variations or Rhythmic Caprice into their repertoire. You can read my last blog about the TROMP repertoire if you want more on adaptations.
The Open Solo category offered a different kind of variety. All 15 semi-finalists had to include a Bach, but the selections reached across cello suites, violin sonatas and partitas, and the lute suite in E minor.
The duo programs are also worth a closer look. Alejandro Viñao’s Book of Grooves appeared in three semi-final programs. Michael Taylor’s Rhapsody for Vibraphone and Marimba, Burritt’s Sweet Dreams and Time Machines, and Adi Morag’s Octabones each appeared twice. There also was some Manoury performed, Sculptures I, as well as an incredible adaptation of Liszt’s La Campanella.
Now, for the data:
Small bonus of William Brown and I watching the finals together.
