Marimba maestro to bring literary beats to St. Charles library

The St. Charles Public Library concludes its 2024-25 Sunday Concert Series on Sunday, June 22, with a special performance by Josh Graham, a percussionist praised as “beguiling” by the Chicago Tribune.

He will perform several recently commissioned works for solo marimba at 2 p.m. in the Carnegie Community Room of the library, 1 S. Sixth Ave.

The pieces, by composers Katherine Pukinskis, Griffin Candey, and Michael Conrad, draw their inspiration from works of literature, including Ernest Hemingway's “The Nick Adams Stories,” the poetry of Iowan James Hearst, and Psalm 139. The performance will include readings of the works that have inspired them.

Graham is assistant professor and percussion program coordinator at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, as well as executive director of the trio F-PLUS. He has performed at venues including Carnegie Hall, National Gallery of Art, DiMenna Center, Princeton Sound Kitchen Series, Detroit Institute of Art, Milwaukee Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Polish Consulate of Chicago, and at dozens of universities across the country.

Graham holds degrees from Central Michigan University (BM), the University of Michigan (MM), and the University of Illinois (DMA).

This event is part of the library’s Sunday Concert Series, featuring a wide variety of musical performances. This performance is funded through donations to the St. Charles Public Library Foundation. Learn more at scpld.org.