On the first day of music history class at the Oberlin Conservatory in 1967, our professor asked, “What is music?”. It was like a Zen kōan, and everybody contemplated it for the rest of the semester. We continued to learn music of the classical European repertoire, but I don’t remember if there was an answer to… Read more »
THE NEXUS OFFICE DOG Some of you might remember the NEXUS office dog who made occasional appearances in 2015 through 2017. Usually associated with holidays! He left the office in 2018 to patrol more heavenly halls, but he remains immortalized here and there on the NEXUS pages. A NOBLE CD AND… Read more »
SEPIDEH RAISSADAT and PERSIAN SONGS Our remarkable collaboration with Iranian vocalist Sepideh Raissadat began in 2014. Russell Hartenberger created several new arrangements for NEXUS and voice and entitled the suite “Persian Songs”. It was premiered at the Open Ears Festival in Kitchener Ontario, reprised at a Walter Hall concert in Toronto, and then we… Read more »
VIRGILIANA We kicked off 2013 with two premieres. At the New Music Festival at the University of Toronto we presented the newly-commissioned work “Virgiliana” by Canadian composer Norbert Palej. It was his strong response to “Naples’ sun-bathed heat” and the “cool damp gloom and millennia-old mysteries” of the caves and grottos associated with Virgil and… Read more »
FEELING THE PULSE Spring touring took us to California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, the Episcopal Collegiate School in Little Rock AR, La Grange College GA and Wittenberg University OH. We opened each with Music For Pieces Of Wood, and we had guests provide “the pulse”: Dave Johnson, Eric Saoud, Ken Passmore and Marc Smarelli… Read more »
AN ALL-TIMPANI PROGRAM In early March 2011, we participated in two exciting programs. David Kent (timpanist with the Toronto Symphony) joined us a guest artist in an unusual program of timpani works. Together, we premiered Bill Cahn’s new piece “Night Ride” and played his Raga No. 1. Along with the Philidor “Marche de timbales”, Elliott… Read more »
LUMINOUS ACOUSTICS In July 2010 we returned to Garry Kvistad’s “Woodstock Beat” event at Maverick Hall just outside Woodstock NY. We were joined by Sō Percussion and Steve Reich as we had been in 2008 at the Ojai Festival in California. The occasion was the 40th anniversary of the writing of Reich’s “Drumming”. We too… Read more »
MORE ABOUT TALKING DRUMS First a quick flashback to 2008 – some more details about Russell Hartenbergers’s Talking Drum Symposim. He says, “I organized a “Talking Drum Symposium” which was sponsored by the Jackman Humanities Institute at the University of Toronto. The featured guests were John Miller Chernoff, author of “African Rhythm and African Sensibility,”… Read more »
DANCE MUSIC FOR ELFRID IDE HERE is a radio show aired of Garry and Russell in conversation with Laura Kuhn, Exec.Dir. of the John Cage Trust at Bard College. They had fun talking about Cage and sundry related topics. You will also hear 2 movements of our recording of Cage’s Dance Music for Elfrid Ide,… Read more »
New Release! The latest Canadian Brass album, “Canadiana”. The title says it all. This is an album that celebrates exceptional Canadian song-makers. Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” is here along with works from popular artists Joni Mitchell, Drake, Daniel Caesar, Shawn Mendes, Rush, Deadmau5, k.d.lang, Lara Fabian, and Bruce Cockburn. Bill was invited by the Brass to… Read more »
At this month’s Percussive Arts Society International Conference in Indianapolis, Garry Kvistad and Russell Hartenberger received high honours. Russell received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Education, and Garry was inducted into the PAS Percussion Hall of Fame. Russell actually received the honour in 2020, along with co-recipients F.Michael Combs and William Moersch. But due to… Read more »
TIKI TIME AND MOZART We opened the inaugural season of the Toronto Summer Music Academy and Festival (TSMAF) in Summer ’06 with four world premieres! Following its recent preview, Bill Cahn had been able to put the finishing touches on his new work “Night Ride” so it received its official premiere here. The piece was… Read more »
Facilitated by Bill Cahn Click here to download the “Creative Music Making” Handout Sheet
THE ABILITY TO BREATHE TOGETHER We were honoured to have our Drumtalker album nominated for a Juno, the Canadian equivalent of the Brit Awards of Great Britain or the Grammy Awards in the USA. The reviews were in: Payton MacDonald (American Record Guide) said, “Nexus remains one of the great percussion groups in the world…. Read more »
