Keiko Abe: A Virtuosic Life

In the biography Keiko Abe: A Virtuosic Life, author Rebecca Kite tells the untold story of Keiko Abe’s groundbreaking influence on the evolution of the marimba and its music. Kite also offers a history of the xylophone, the marimba, and the music, composers, and performers that each instrument was associated with over the centuries. Examples of rare and historic recordings are included on a CD. Keiko Abe transformed the marimba into today’s five-octave solo instrument and full-fledged member of classical ensembles. Over the course of Keiko Abe’s long musical career, beginning as a child prodigy at age ten, her rare gifts have garnered her recognition as a musical genius, consummate artist, innovator in her field, and composer of classical pieces of art music for her instrument. As Abe’s audiences worldwide know, she is also a spellbinding performer. Biographer Rebecca Kite is a marimbist and composer whose solo recordings include “Across Time” and “Prism.” She is a frequent contributor to Percussive Notes, the journal of the Percussive Arts Society.