Touring with marimba, vibes, piano and a CHOIR!

Recently I had the pleasure of performing with my good friend Martin Gasselsberger on a piece that he composed for piano, marimba, vibraphone, 3 vocal soloists and full choir.

The piece is called "Stabat Mater" and we performed it last year - you can watch the full video of that performance here:    • Stabat Mater (Piano, Vibraphone/Marimba & ...  

This year, we actually went on a small 'tour' of churches in Austria (and one in Germany). The amount of work that Martin has poured into this project is astounding - so I wanted to kind of document this experience for both myself and my family (in the US who don't get to see me perform that often). I also don't perform music like this very often - so I found myself getting nostalgic for my college days when I played in orchestra and also attended lots of concerts. There's something special about taking part in a production that involves a large ensemble, whether it's a choir, and orchestra, or a jazz group. These are singular experiences and ever time it's unique. So I wanted to really enjoy it and try to capture how the whole experience feels. I hope you enjoy this video!

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'Stabat Mater' Composed by Martin Gasslesberger with text by Martin Mucha

with the Kantorei St. Michael's Basilika Mondsee

Gottfried Holzer-Graf - conductor
Dominik Milewski - baritone
Silke Kiener - alto
Marcia Sacha - soprano
Martin Gasselsberger - piano, composition
Tim Collins - vibraphone, marimba

On the first day, we rehearsed the entire piece - and after that we played a concert of Bach chorales. The choir was in the balcony at the back of the church and Martin and I were in the front. They would sing a chorale, Gottfried would play an improvised organ interlude, and then Martin and I played a 'jazz' version of the same chorale. It was fun and difficult - Bach is the greatest composer ever, so it's a fool's task to try to improvise over it... but we don't take ourselves too seriously so we did it anyway! I think that's the only way to approach it.

I hope you enjoy this video as much as we enjoyed playing the music!

Recorded April 2025 in Mondsee, Gaspoltshofen, Wels (Austria) and Saaldorf (Germany).

Cheers,
Tim
#vibraphone #choir #marimba #composer #jazzmusic