On February 25 the final session of the Eastman School’s 2014 spring semester “Creative Music Making” course concluded with a free improvisation recital. The seven-week ALP course is open to all Eastman students – instrumentalists and vocalists – and it is structured to provide practical experiences for the participants in performing and teaching freeform music… Read more »
Born on June 22, 1947 in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Bob Becker holds the degrees Bachelor of Music with Distinction, and Master of Music (Performance and Literature) from the Eastman School of Music where he studied percussion with William G. Street and John H. Beck, and composition with Warren Benson and Aldo Provenzano. As an undergraduate he… Read more »
I thought you would enjoy the article just posted on Thomas Brett’s blog about “a rendition of Steve Reich’s Music For Pieces Of Wood by the esteemed percussion ensemble Nexus.” The performance he looks at is on Youtube and is provided at the bottom of the article. The post is titled On The Wisdom Of… Read more »
Work hard, play hard is an old saying that I firmly believe in. The balance between work and recreation is important and the lines are often blurred. Ideally, one can do both at all times. In other words, enjoying your work and learning from your recreation is a worthwhile goal. I find myself becoming bored… Read more »
Join us on Facebook to see a wonderful collection of photos of John Wyre’s World Drums at Expo 86 in Vancouver, Canada. The photos have been shared with us by Barry Burns who was production stage manager with the Expo 86 entertainment department and today is with the Shaw Festival. Barry says that World Drums… Read more »
Reviewer John Terauds gave a great shout-out to NEXUS this weekend in his excellent review of Rob Power’s new album “Touch”: “There’s been an explosion (or should we call it striking growth?) in the number of fine percussionists in this country — largely due to the influence and inspiration of Nexus, the Toronto ensemble founded… Read more »
As a part of my regular visits to the Showa Academy in Japan, I am sometimes asked to visit an English language class to have a conversation in English with some of the students for an hour or so. It’s my experience that we English speakers can be very spoiled as we travel… Read more »
I recently had the honor of being a keynote speaker for the Ulster County Leadership Development Institute (ULDI) sponsored by the Ulster County Chamber of Commerce here in the Hudson Valley of New York State. The 25 or so participants were top employees sent by local businesses to help develop their leadership skills. Since I… Read more »
Monday, Dec. 16 Another mild sunny day in Yokohama and Kaz picked me up at 8:30 for the drive back to Showa. Yashio stayed in Yokohama to host Mark Boseman on his last day of masterclasses. He will fly home tomorrow (Tuesday). The students have really enjoyed Mark’s sessions on Stevens grip and technique,… Read more »
While in Yokohama, Japan to observe the masterclasses given by Mark Boseman at a studio in the Steinway piano showroom, I noticed a large poster on the wall with a great blowup photograph taken on a street in front of a row of townhouses in Harlem in 1958. Standing there was a “who’s… Read more »
Tuesday, Dec. 10 download adobe master collection cs6 It was rainy and chilly this morning, and it’s a good thing that I packed an umbrella because the rain was strong at times during my short walk from the hotel to the school. I didn’t need to be at Showa until 10:15 so I worked on… Read more »
With the holidays all around us, I think of family, food and music more than ever. I just returned from a trip to San Francisco where my brother Rick (he’s the principal percussionist with the SF Opera) and I performed at the Acoustical Society of America’s annual conference. This trip included family, lots of food… Read more »
Saturday, Dec. 7 This morning I woke up at 5 AM again and couldn’t go back to sleep. so I turned on the TV to see if I could find anything interesting and while surfing through all if the channels I booted up my laptop and spent over an hour writing the previous blog posting. … Read more »
download antivirus software Since 1998 I have had the privilege of regularly visiting the Showa University of Music and Arts, first at the original campus in Atsugi, Japan, and then from 2007 at the beautiful new campus in Kawasaki. This is my 12th visit at the invitation of Kazunori Meguro and his wife, Yashio Sudo. … Read more »
If you have been following us on Facebook, you will know that the NEXUS members are heading to Indianapolis for the 2013 Percussive Arts Society International Conference. Russell Hartenberger is going to be on the World Percussion Committee’s panel along with B. Michael Williams, Shawn Mativetsky, and Michael Spiro with Neeraj Mehta as “referee”. Bill… Read more »
