Here is a lovely review by Gene Tyranny that Bob Becker has discovered on the Midomi site (visit it here to read the original). The review is undated, but provides a most sensitive description of NEXUS’ signature work, Toru Takemitsu’s From me flows what you call Time… Performed by the percussion group Nexus, and the… Read more »
I’m home again after a 12-hour straight-shot drive from Pembroke, North Carolina that included about 20-minutes of dead-stop traffic on the Washington, D.C. Beltway during the 5:00 rush hour. I was at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke as a guest artist in residence at the invitation of Dr. Tracy Wiggins, the UNCP coordinator… Read more »
It’s 10/10/10 and I’m in Petersburg, Virginia. Today I’ll be driving to Pembroke, North Carolina for several days of workshops and performances at the University of North Carolina. Yesterday, I walked through the old town historic area of Petersburg, and though it was a beautiful sunny and mild Saturday, there were literally no people to be… Read more »
Creating, commissioning and developing repertoire is a huge part of NEXUS. New material is always in the works, written by all the NEXUS members, each of whom is a composer in his own right.
On April 1, 2010 I was able to spend a day at the Malletech Company facilities in Neptune, NJ. I had discussions with Leigh Stevens regarding the new Malletech rosewood snare drum stick line, and in particular the design for my signature model (these should be appearing soon). We also discussed some new publications, and… Read more »
On Thursday, October 7, after a 2-hour morning drive from Lexington, VA, I arrived at Longwood University in Farmville, VA and met with Chris Thomas, the percussion specialist on the faculty, who organized my visit in coordination with Lauren Weiss’s Percussion Events Registry Company with the support of Vic Firth, Inc. The agenda for my… Read more »
I believe this is my hundredth NEXUS blog post! Bob, Bill, Robin, Garry, Russell and Ray have also been posting, but this is Number One Hundred for me personally. We’ve covered a lot of ground together, haven’t we ?! Composers, film, organizations, sponsors, travels and sights, programming ideas, workshops, art, clinics, education, symposiums, concerts, sound… Read more »
The release of the terrific new Canadian Brass recording featuring NEXUS got me thinking about other collaborations that NEXUS has enjoyed over the years. Here is a particularly unusual one: In 1982, NEXUS created a three-volume set of recordings with Canadian poet out-of-print, but an article by Ted Shaw in the Windsor Star in October… Read more »
The NEXUS CD Rune features three major works commissioned by and composed for NEXUS by award-winning Canadian composers John Hawkins, James Tenney and Bruce Mather. It also features cover art by Regan Morris: two works entitled Lightning and Lightning #2.
The morning routine on Sunday September 12 was different. Bonnie and Diane left early to spend a day revisiting Kyoto. I slept until 8:00 AM and instead of going to Starbucks, I walked to a nearby AM/PM convenience store to bring some small snaks and iced coffee back to my hotel room, where I wrote… Read more »
Saturday September 11 started with the (by now) normal routine – emails, blogging, Starbucks, “round up” (gathering everything to take to the hall for the concert). At 11:30 AM Kaz (Meguro from Showa) called my room from the hotel lobby. He and his wife, Yashio, had flown down from Yokohama to meet me and NEXUS… Read more »
Friday September 10 began at 6:00 AM again after a solid 7-hours of sleep. Before heading over to the normal NEXUS breakfast gathering at Starbucks, I checked my emails. Yesterday (9th) was Ruth’s and my 42nd anniversary and a very nice email was awaiting me in response to the one I sent last night. After… Read more »
On Thursday, September 9, I was finally able to sleep until 6 AM. After waking up I spent about an hour taking care of emails and then organizing the stuff in my room – concert clothes, suitcase, CDs and bedding to get ready for the open rehearsal taking place this afternoon. I had a nice… Read more »
The entire morning of September 8 was spent writing and posting the previous blogs, of course with a coffee break at Starbuck’s. At 1:30 PM we left the hotel and took the Hankyu Line train to the concert hall for the first full rehearsal with the P.A.C. Orchestra. We arrived just in time to check… Read more »
On Tuesday morning September 7 after the obligatory coffee at Starbuck’s, we decided to go to Kyoto for the unanticipated free day. (The conductor, Yutaka Sado, was only going to rehearse with the brass section this day, so NEXUS was excused.) The train ride to Kyoto was only about 45-minutes at the ridiculously low ticket… Read more »
