About the Music

Ton yo han mek fashan for bass clarinet and marimba was commissioned and premiered by Transient Canvas, and was the winner of the 2022 Dolphy Prize. The composer shares the following program note about the work:

This piece is inspired by two instruments in the Jamaican Mento Band. The first is the rumba box or in other countries called the marimbula. It is like a large thumb piano, and it provides the “bassline” of the band. This instrument has only five to six fixed pitches tuned like a scale, so the bass is implied as it will not always be in tune with the other instruments. It, however, adds great rhythmic effect. The second instrument is the clarinet. Although a familiar Western instrument, in this context, the sounds produced are very bold, honky, reedy, earthy, unrefined, as the instrumentalists are self-taught. Nevertheless, they produce highly virtuosic improvisatory themes, or improvisations on folk songs; full of character and life congruent to the moment in which this mento music is being played.

The marimba mimics the rumba box very well, and the bass clarinet is already of the clarinet family. The advantage of these two instruments lie in their extended upper/lower ranges, making it possible to play with the dynamic of their interaction. Starting from the traditional role of melody-accompaniment, I reverse, warp, or even abandon these roles so these instruments can even represent other instruments found in the mento band (i.e. the guitar, banjo, or drums). The result is somewhat a set of variations on the theme of a two-man band.

The title Ton yo han mek fashan (literally translated: turn your hand [and] make fashion) is a proverb with two meanings: To make of what could be deemed useless, fashionable. It also means to make the most of an unfortunate situation. I originally wrote the piece making the most of two instruments to create elements of a full mento band. Ironically, this piece was written in the year that endured a global pandemic, in which I was creatively paralyzed for eight months. Now, had to make use of an unfortunate situation (the pandemic), break through my darkest times, and create a work that I always wanted to be highly optimistic and full of joy.

Duo score: 35 pages; bass clarinet part: 31 pages; marimba part: 41 pages. Each spiral bound. Extended-range bass clarinet required.

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About the Composer

Mikhail Johnson (1989-) born in the rural hills of Maroon Town in the parish of St. James, Jamaica, is one of the country’s most preeminent pianists and composers. Winner of the Jamaica Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition for Young Musicians Senior Division in 2009, and in the same year, won the piano section of the Jamaica Music Teachers' Association Music Competition. He has won numerous gold medals and national awards in the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) Festival of the Performing Arts, and he was also a finalist in the 2017 American Prize Music Competition for Piano (collegiate division). In 2021 he was two-time First Prize winner of the Charleston International Music Competition and the first Jamaican to enter the competition.

Deemed by Spoleto Festival USA as “a composer who invites us to consider and reframe our sonic sensibilities,” Johnson’s compositional style merges traditional European classical music and the avant-garde with traditional Jamaican cultural idiosyncrasies.

Johnson’s music has been performed by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, The Cantus Ensemble in London, The North/South Consonance Ensemble, The Concordia Ensemble of the University of Notre Dame and The Northwest Sinfonietta. He has also been performed by artists such as Departure Duo, fivebyfive, Verdant Vibes, Transient Canvas, 21st Century Consort and Ensemble Klang. His music has been performed at events such as the International Clarinet Association Clarinetfest. In 2022 Johnson made his Spoleto Festival USA debut with his composition Evil’s Peak to critical acclaim. In 2025 Johnson made his European Debuts at Wigmore Hall, the Muziekgebouw, Koro Theatre and De Doelen with his epic work Tell! Jonkonnu, Tell!

Johnson has received commissions from the University of North Carolina (Greensboro), Bowling Green State University and Texas Tech University, and music organizations such as the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), the Cincinnati Song Initiative (CSI), the Brooklyn Art Song Society, Seattle Opera and Wigmore Hall.

He was winner of the 2016 NEOSonicFest Young and Emerging Composers Composition; 2019 Composer-in-Residence at the University of Notre-Dame, South Bend, Indiana; 2020 winner of the Transient Canvas Composition Fellowship; recipient of 2021-2022 National Association of Teachers of Singing NATS Mentorship Program for Composers; the 2022 Alea Publishing & Recording Dolphy Prize; the 2022-2023 Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA) Composer Residency Fellowship; and composer for the 2022-2023 Seattle Opera Jane Lang Davis Creation Lab for a new chamber opera, making Johnson the first black composer to have an opera commissioned and performed by the company in their 60-year history.

Mikhail has also served as chief adjudicator for several international music competitions in the categories of piano and composition.