# Michael Burritt: Teaching, Legacy, and the Sound of a Life in Music

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-bandwich-tapes-6690876/michael-burritt-teaching-legacy-and-the-sound-of-a-life-in-music
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-bandwich-tapes-6690876/michael-burritt-teaching-legacy-and-the-sound-of-a-life-in-music.md
Podcast: [The Bandwich Tapes](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-bandwich-tapes-6690876)
Published: 2026-05-21T09:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://share.transistor.fm/s/a3292fd6
Audio file: https://2.gum.fm/op3.dev/e/pdcn.co/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/pdst.fm/e/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/media.transistor.fm/a3292fd6/99e4b6aa.mp3
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Duration seconds: 4511

## Resource

On this episode of The Bandwich Tapes, I sit down with percussionist, composer, and educator Michael Burritt for a wide-ranging conversation about teaching, performing, composing, and the responsibility that comes with shaping generations of musicians. Michael reflects on his years at Eastman, the path that brought him there, and the deep sense of purpose he feels in helping students grow not just as players, but as people. We spend a lot of time talking about mentorship and what it means to build a studio culture rooted in excellence, curiosity, humility, and trust. Michael shares thoughtful reflections on former students like Brett Dietz, Jake Nissly, and Peter Martin, and what makes it so meaningful to watch students go on to become artists, educators, and leaders in their own right. What comes through clearly is that for him, teaching has never been about producing one type of player. It has always been about helping each student become more fully themselves. We also dig into the evolution of percussion pedagogy and marimba playing over the last few decades. Michael talks about the opportunities and distractions that come with instant access to recordings, the increasing technical level of incoming students, and the importance of still building a strong pedagogical foundation. He speaks candidly about sound, time, phrasing, touch, and the long arc of helping a student develop an ear that demands more of their own playing. Along the way, we get into composition, repertoire, and how marimba literature has expanded over the course of his career. Michael shares how he approaches writing for the instrument, what happens when non-percussionist composers write for marimba, and why the best music still puts musical meaning ahead of technical display. By the end of the conv…

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## Transcript

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