Bob Becker has recently returned from a week-long percussion residency entitled “Roots and Rhizomes” at the Banff Centre for the Arts in western Canada, where he was a faculty member. It got me thinking about the several NEXUS/Banff connections.
The mention in my summer festivals post of my last “archive” posting of the “Offbeat” NEXUS article of 1998, this is another Allan Kozinn New York Times review,
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 »
Tonight in Woodstock, New York, NEXUS’s Garry Kvistad is presenting the Paul Winter Consort at his 18th Annual Woodstock Beat in upper New York state, which benefits the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild. NEXUS had the pleasure of performing at Woodstock Beat last summer. Indeed, NEXUS spent most of last summer touring and performing at festivals: Ojai… Read more »
There are “big doings” at NEXUS this summer. I see email flying back and forth between the NEXUS guys about new pieces they are writing, new additions to the NEXUS repertoire, and some exciting new commissions that are due to arrive any minute.
Yesterday I attended the Premier’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts where Ontario’s Ministry of Culture and the Ontario Arts Council honour Ontario artists and arts organizations. The event was held at the Wychwood Barns. Two years ago, Artscape took over the old Wychwood Toronto Transit streetcar repair barns and transformed them into a community… Read more »
Walking around Toronto this week, I see gardens that are overflowing with an abundance of lush iris blossoms. It puts me in mind of Bob Becker who has raised irises in his garden for years. He has planted a number of Zwilich commission called “Rituals”?) At the end of next month, Bob travels to Delaware… 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 »
On May 24 I again joined forces with Peter Soave, She-e Wu and the Northwestern University Percussion Ensemble, this time at the new Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago’s spectacular Millennium Park. Besides the Frank Gehry-designed pavilion itself, the park contains Anish Kapoor’s magical polished steel sculpture, Cloud Gate. Just before our rehearsal, I was surprised to… 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 »
I’ve been browsing among CBC’s Russell Hartenberger was the principal guest at the January 2009 Ellen Taaffe Zwilich‘s Trio For Cello, Violin and Piano. (You will recall that Ellen has also written a very fine piece for NEXUS entitled Rituals). You also won’t want to miss the John Wyre, co-founder of NEXUS. You can also… Read more »
After yesterday’s post about NEXUS’s birthday, it seems only fair to me that we post a vintage shot of Garry Kvistad too. Why should he escape unscathed! Here is a 1977 photo from Garry’s Woodstock Chimes website of he and his wife Diane at the Cincinnati Craft Fair the day his first Chimes of Olympos… Read more »
Today is NEXUS’ 38th Birthday! On May 22, 1971, the first NEXUS concert took place in Kilbourn Hall at the Eastman School of Music. The concert was organized by Warren Benson, and it was entirely improvised. The founding members were John Wyre, Michael Craden, Bob Becker, Bill Cahn, Robin Engelman, and Russell Hartenberger. Today’s members… Read more »
Here is another peek into the NEXUS archives, this time an article by Allan Kozinn in the New York Times of May 3, 1998. The article was headlined “Touring Percussionists Who Aren’t Really Offbeat”, and here are some highlights from Mr Kozinn’s piece: “ONE might have thought that five percussionists who wanted to band together… 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 »
