Further to my blog posting on July 26, 2009 (see “On Wings of Song”) the premiere of a new work for chamber orchestra, narrator and children’s chorus occurred on Sunday March 28, 2010 at the Hochstein Performance Hall in Rochester, New York. The performers were Simon Pontin as Narrator, the Bach Children’s Chorus directed by… Read more »
It’s January 15, 2010 (Japan time) – the last day of my 2-week residency at the Showa Academy of Music. This has been my seventh such residency since 1998 – the third time at the school’s new campus facility in Kawasaki. The old campus was in Atsugi, about another 40 minutes southwest away from Tokyo… Read more »
It has been a long time since I last saw the Mummers Parade on New Year’s Day in Philadelphia. It was probably when I was in the 6th grade or so. This year, on a whim, I asked Ruth if she would like to go to Philadelphia for New Year’s day and she said, “yes,”… Read more »
On October 31, 2009 I had the pleasure of performing in the John Cage Symposium at Bard College, located in Annanndale-on-Hudson, New York. Along with Bob Becker, Russell Hartenberger, Garry Kvistad, and special guest, Jason Treuting of So Percussion, we immersed ourselves in a program of Cage’s music for percussion instruments, including the piano, played… Read more »
While NEXUS is in Windsor, Ontario rehearsing with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra for a performance on October 5, we’re also presenting workshops and masterclasses for students at the University of Windsor.
I first met Kazunori Meguro in Okinawa, Japan in October 1997. He was performing with his Tokyo-based percussion ensemble at a drum festival, to which NEXUS had also been invited. As a result of that meeting, I was invited in 1998 to guest teach for two weeks at the Showa Academy in Japan, where Kazunori… Read more »
I was saddened to hear that Erich Kunzel passed away at his home in Swan’s Island, Maine this past Tuesday, September 1. He was 74. Kunzel was known to symphony audiences throughout the U.S. and Canada for decades as a the Pops Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, with which he made many recordings. He also… Read more »
Since the 1970s Ruth and I have occasionally vacationed in the Adirondack region of New York State. The area is rich in the history of the eighteenth-century conflicts between the French and English for dominance in North America. Last summer (in August 2008) we spent a week with our kayaks at a cottage in Chazy,… Read more »
This blog posting has nothing to do with music. They say that it’s good, every once in a while, to stop and order female viagra online / mexico care pharmacy / buy real viagra with echeck / http://www.lampart.info.pl/emgr/prednisone-online-no/ / http://bezpaniki.art.pl/yqv/genuine-viagra/ smell the roses. I didn’t do that today, but I did stop and look at… Read more »
Except for quick hit-and-run trip to Chautauqua last summer (2008) to hear Michael Burritt perform his marimba concerto with the Chautauqua Symphony, it has been several decades since my last visit. In the 1970s Ruth was in the orchestra’s percussion section and I would occasionally play if an extra percussionist was needed. For years, we… Read more »
I have been composing music since I was in high school. One of my high school music theory teachers encouraged me to compose a few short pieces for the senior chorus, and it was fun to get the positive responses from teachers and fellow students after the performances. I also had fun in Alan… Read more »
Last week (July 6 through 10) I participated in The Eastman School of Music’s first annual Summer Percussion Institute, directed by Eastman Professor Michael Burritt. On Thursday, July 9 I facilitated a “Creative Music Making” workshop for twelve participating students. The 2-1/2-hour workshop focused on freeform improvisation, based on my book, “Creative Music Making”. In… Read more »
NEXUS – Bill Cahn, John Wyre, Bob Becker and Robin Engelman – in January 1984 observed Prime Minister of Canada, Pierre Trudeau as he strutted his stuff to Zhao Ziyang, the Premier of the People’s Republic of China. The news photo that appeared in the Toronto Globe and Mail on January 17, 1984 was taken… Read more »
As the first academic year ends for the new percussion department at the Eastman School of Music, the percussion team was called upon to provide music for a ceremony celebrating the construction of a new facility. The new building is being constructed adjacent to the historic Eastman Theater, and it will feature the new… Read more »
Except for the timpani part in “White Night” by Toshi Ichiyanagi, which I played with NEXUS in one concert in Toronto a few years ago, and my own “Night Ride”, which was in the NEXUS repertoire for a few concerts in 2006/2007, I had not really spent much time ‘timpanizing’ since I left the Rochester… Read more »
