Posts Tagged: percussion

Hurtado Brothers Royal Marimba Band of Guatemala

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In August 2023 I received a request from Amy Racic, the Video Producer for the Percussive Arts Society, asking for “a short self recorded video interview to use as part of their 2023 Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame induction video” on the Hurtado Brothers Royal Marimba Band of Guatemala, who were to be inducted… Read more »

What Is Music?

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One of two large sets of Woodstock Chimes suspended over the audience in Disney Hall for the Takemitsu Concerto with NEXUS and the Los Angeles Philharmonic

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 »

Experimental Music – Questions and Responses (August, 2021)

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When an unexpected email arrived from a student I had met only one time two-years earlier.  Here was the student’s question: “For my music course, we have a unit called “Experimenting with Music”, which contains exploration and composition using a variety of musical instrumentation, techniques, or theories. I am amazed by how you and contemporary… Read more »

An Update from NEXUS

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Hi all. We hope all of you are keeping well and STAYING HOME! All of us here are doing fine. Thank you to all of you who have continued to visit our Facebook page, and to our new Facebook followers who have come on board in the last few weeks. There have been quite a… Read more »

NEW ! E-Books by Bill Cahn

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* To order online: 1) place order by email to:    billcahn@aol.com  OR by phone/text to:  (585) 354-5843     2) a link to DropBox will be emailed back to you     3) the DropBox link will enable you to download the digital book (pdf file)     4) an invoice payable in 10-days… Read more »

Confession of a Percussionist

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NEXUS Playing Cage’s Dance Music for Elfrid Credit: Donald Dietz, courtesy of The John Cage Trust Long ago I knew that music would be my future. I knew then that percussion specifically would be my passion. This all started in the fourth grade when I joined the school band. Through the years I’ve come to… Read more »

Zwilich talks about writing “Rituals” for NEXUS

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In honour of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich birthday, here is an interview where she shares her thoughts on writing this concerto Rituals for NEXUS. Frank Oteri at New Music Box calls the interview Goose Bumps In The Candy Shop. Ellen has some intriguing comments about percussion instruments and their intrinsic nature: FJO: My favorite piece of… Read more »

Giving Thanks for all YOUR help! Drumming At 50

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Here in Canada, we celebrate Thanksgiving on Monday, October 8. What more fitting time to give a BIG THANK YOU to all of you who contributed to our Kickstarter Campaign for Drumming At 50.  September was definitely exciting – if a bit nerve-wracking! We were fund-raising for our Video Recording with Sō Percussion and friends… Read more »

Help us Kickstart DRUMMING’s 50th anniversary!

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Epic. Exhilarating. Revolutionary. Iconic.  Words that describe Steve Reich’s monumental DRUMMING. Russell Hartenberger had a thought. And now that thought has evolved into an exciting project, backed 100% by Steve Reich: We have joined with the wonderful Sō Percussion to create a videography of DRUMMING in celebration of the piece’s 50th Anniversary!

September 4-6 at Ithaca College: Come join us for Free Events!

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From Sept. 4 through 6, NEXUS will be kicking off Ithaca College’s school year with a series of exciting events. All PRESENTATIONS (INCLUDING THE Sept. 6th CONCERT) ARE FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC as well as to the Ithaca students. We are thrilled that Gordon Stout, (marimbist, composer, and educator – lucky Ithaca College!),… Read more »

Podcasts, Playing, Prepping, Publishing: a Summer Recap

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If you’ve followed us on Facebook, you’ll know it’s been a busy and varied summer. Bill has been involved in Eastman’s Summer Horizons with young music students in his wonderful program “Creative Music Making”. We will be presenting that program at Ithaca College in early September, so stay tuned, as it will be open to… Read more »

PAS Rhythm/Scene covers our busy spring!

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Thanks to Lauren Vogel Weiss for her article on our busy spring in the PAS Rhythm/Scene newsletter, June issue. She covered our performance with guest Frank Cassara with the Northern Dutchess Symphony Orchestra at the Culinary Institute of American under the baton of Kathleen Beckman; our Princeton University appearance with SōPercussion celebrating Steve Reich with… Read more »

Peanut Butterfly Interlochen Boom

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Those were the words given to us by our “high school” orchestra conductor, Thor Johnson, when we were playing a difficult new work by a Japanese composer in the mid-1960s. If you say each word on four beats, fitting the syllables equally in each beat, it helps create a rhythm of 2 + 3 +… Read more »

Great review of our Maverick Hall concert

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We received a great review of our Maverick Hall concert, from the Boston Musical Intelligencer, “a virtual journal and essential blog of the classical music scene in greater Boston”.  Here are a few excerpts from Leslie Gerber’s review: “These virtuosi handled the difficult score with confidence and verve…”

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