Vida Chenoweth chose the marimba as her instrument because it was a challenge: “In the little town of Enid, Oklahoma, where I was born, father sold musical instruments. For our Sunday entertainment, we were taken to the store where we could play the instrument of our choice. I was studying the piano, but an infected finger prompted me to try the marimba and I became fascinated. A marimba teacher lived in in our town. I studied with him for about a year, then he left for lack of business. From then on, it was a matter of applying everything I knew about the piano and music to the marimba. I had to devise my technique as I went along.”

– from the liner notes of the Epic label recording, Vida Chenoweth: Classical Marimbist

Concert career