Blog

I admit I’m a “newbie” when it comes to John Cage.  I know of the man, of course, but had never really heard his work. I knew about the 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence;  – I certainly hadn’t heard that! And I’d seen any number of send-ups of “prepared pianos” (a Cage innovation)…. Read more »

NEXUS member Robin Engelman has just returned from Sweden and Finland where he was the guest of each country’s army! A bit unusual, you might think, but it’s due to Robin’s long-held fascination with military drumming, the historic rope tensioned field drums, and fife and drum music. He’s become an expert in the field (pun… Read more »

If you have booked NEXUS, then you know Ray Dillard, the NEXUS Business Manager. He’s the man we turn to when we need to know if a gig can work logistically. He can tell us how many cases each instrument set-up takes, what we need in terms of light and sound, how many hours we… Read more »

Adams Musical Instruments and Pearl Drums are two of our Sponsors. They help us out in a whole lot of ways and they can help you out too. Did you know that Pearl/Adams will help you financially if you wish to present a NEXUS educational event such as a clinic, workshop, or master-class?

Bill Cahn has been a member of the NEXUS percussion quintet since 1971, and was the principal percussionist in the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra from 1968 to 1995.  Born in Philadelphia in 1946, Bill has performed with conductors, composers, ensembles, and artists representing diverse musical styles – Chet Atkins, John Cage, Aaron Copland, Chuck Mangione, Mitch… Read more »

Today I want to tell you about Garry Kvistad’s collection of strange instruments and his Science of Sound workshop. Garry is the “newbie” with NEXUS. He joined NEXUS in 2002 when founding member John Wyre retired, so he’s been a Nexonian for a mere 6 years compared to NEXUS’ thirty-seven!

2007 Highlights January – returned to Japan for a week of concerts at the Amakusa ISLAND MAGIC 2007 festival with marimbist, Mika Yoshida, clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, bassist Eddie Gomez, and pianist Peter John Stoltzman. The ensemble performed in New York at Carnegie Hall the following week. February – workshops presented at the University of Kansas… Read more »

Hello out there.  It’s a week after the NEXUS performance at PASIC, and the sun still shines, though not as much in Rochester as in Austin.  Eric Ewazen’s new piece, “The Eternal Dance of Life,” was a great success, and NEXUS is looking forward to revisiting it many times in the future.  A few days… Read more »

Just a quick post to let our Presenters know about marketing materials that are available. We have flyers that we can send to you for your own overprinting. We have complete HARDCOPY press and promotional packages that we can snail-mail to you for committee meetings or newspaper and magazine writers.  These come with full reviews,… Read more »

I’ve just been reading the Orchestras Canada weekly newsletter. It’s called Soundbytes, and it comes into my email box every Friday. This week they announced our new website, but that was just one of several “newsbytes” from across the country. “Soundbytes” is a great resource. As well as the latest news, it provides useable and… Read more »

I’ve been thinking about NEXUS and their film programmes and film scores. NEXUS has two fascinating programmes of Silent Film Accompaniments: the fun “Teddy At The Throttle“, Mack Sennett’s great silent comedy starring Keystone Teddy the dog, who saves the girl tied to the railway tracks. (This summer NEXUS performed “Teddy” in the Ottawa Chamber… Read more »