Archives

NEXUS Cover Art #5: Regan Morris

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.

NEXUS Cover Art #4: Michael Craden

Michael Craden was a founding member of NEXUS. In addition to his skills as a musician, Michael was a gifted sculptor and painter with showings in Los Angeles and Toronto.

Happy 40th Season, NEXUS!

NEXUS is celebrating the beginning of its 40th season on Saturday, May 22nd when the group turns 39! Having ushered in their anniversary season with a sold-out concert introducing their new commission from Steve Reich, NEXUS is looking forward to appearances in Toronto, Minnesota, Japan, Europe, New York State, Texas, Virginia and points west. It’s going to be a wonderful performance season.

From the Archives #5: Unexpected Pleasures

The WNYC archive of their New Sounds series carries a program dated January 27, 1989 that will give you the unexpected pleasure of hearing some NEXUS pieces from an early and now-out-of-print LP entitled Music of NEXUS

What an amazing evening with Steve Reich!

Tonight’s concert at Koerner Hall with NEXUS, Steve Reich, Ryan Scott, Greg Oh, Simon Docking, David Occhipinti, James Brown and Roberto Occhipinti, was SO amazing! There was excitement, complexity, simplicity, anticipation, all sorts of unexpected delights:

NEXUS Cover Art #3: Baumann, Fahrni and Pechel

The serene cover art for the NEXUS album out of the blue is in keeping with what Swiss drum-set artist Fritz Hauser calls “the serene mastery” of NEXUS in performance. Out of the blue

From the Archives #4: NEXUS an Inspiration

In 2008 NEXUS performed at the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival. Incredibly, this was NEXUS’ first time at the OCMF. They gave three …

Hear NEXUS with Orchestra in Windsor/Detroit

On the evening of October 3rd, if you are within driving distance of the sister cities of Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario, you have a great opportunity to hear NEXUS perform with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra.

NEXUS to perform in Windsor, Ontario and Bowling Green, Ohio

NEXUS, like everyone else, is heading “back to school” this month. Beginning on September 30th NEXUS is performing and giving workshops at the University of Windsor in Windsor, Ontario, including one tailored especially for High School students.

From the Archives #3: “Choreographed noisemaking”

The mention in my summer festivals post of Toru Takemitsu’s “Rain Tree” reminded me of an article in the NEXUS Archives. Like my last “archive” posting of the “Offbeat” NEXUS article of 1998, this is another Allan Kozinn New York Times review,

History of NEXUS - 1990 to 1998

click on the link below to see a listing of NEXUS performance venues and programs

History of NEXUS - 1990 to 1998

History of NEXUS - 1968 to 1989

click on the link below to see a listing of NEXUS performance venues and programs

History of NEXUS -1968 to 1989

From The Archives #2: Cracking the Majors

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 …

The Musical Journey of a Lifetime - China - May 1984

It’s certainly true that travel is the best education. One important lesson to be learned is that “there are many pathways” - other people in other places do things differently.  It’s in reconciling those differences with one’s own past experiences and expectations that the learning takes place.  The question, “why do they do that?” leads naturally to the …

From The Archives # 1: The New York Times 1999

From time to time I will give you a peek into the NEXUS archives. Here are some great excerpts from a 1999 New York Times article by  Leslie Kandell entitled A Percussion Ensemble That Keeps Marching to a Different Drummer. It provides a neat snapshot of NEXUS and mentions a couple of pieces that NEXUS continues to play today: Kobina, and Music for Pieces of Wood. Leslie interviewed the late John Wyre, one of the founders of NEXUS, for portions of the article. Here are the excerpts:

“The five men of Nexus are physically fit, but no way can they lug all the instruments and gizmos a percussion concert requires.