Click HERE to read about NEXUS’ appearance at MusicFest Canada on May 16 and 17, 2013.

Related posts:

1. NEXUS at MusicFest Canada – May 2013
2. NEXUS in Japan – September 2010 – Press Release
3. Press Release – NEXUS + 2X10 Piano Duo

Jeff Spevak, music critic for The Democrat & Chronicle, says “the night belonged to the sparkling collaboration between the RPO and NEXUS” and calls Maestro Bay “sprightly” and “the perfect man for this job, with an intimate knowledge of all the working parts on this weekend’s construction.”  He also points out that Peter Bay conducted the RPO and NEXUS on the 1994 album, Voices. Spevak provides a lovely description of NEXUS as they “worked with bells, bowls, drums, gongs, cymbals and all manner of clattering and shaking objects dangling from racks set about the stage, alongside wood blocks, vibraphones and glockenspiels” and the RPO as it “laid down a lush soundtrack…. It closed with the shaking of chimes hanging from racks, producing a rainfall of tinkling notes that slowly faded until only one stubborn little chime remained … ringing … ringing … barely perceptible, until it too was gone. And only then did the patient audience in the Eastman Theatre break into applause.” You can read all of Jeff Spevak’s review by clicking here.

Paloma Capanna reviewed the event for the City Newspaper and painted an equally interesting “word picture” of the stage set-up, concluding with, “On each front wing of the stage was a tall, wide bar, supporting more than 20 long chimes. The metal instruments were made of all types of metals, thickness, shape, and sizes.” And when she described the NEXUS percussionists themselves, she does so with a photographer’s eye: “Each percussionist moved as if taking part in a water ballet. The entire arc of their bodies was part of the creation of the sound.” She describes Bill’s “rolling thunder on a huge cymbal that began with the smallest of movement, but rose gently and surely through larger and larger movements, creating more and more sound until it started to recede to where he was barely moving, even as the smallest of sounds still penetrated to the upper reaches of the hall.” You can read all of Paloma Capanna’s review by clicking here.

Related posts:

1. Read two great Reviews of NEXUS with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra
2. NEXUS to appear with the Rochester Philharmonic
3. NEXUS brings their “sonic feast” to Rochester in May

“Dear Nexus-
Happy almost 42nd anniversary!! What a beautiful and appropriate way
to celebrate with your RPO performances this week in Kodak Hall (I still
think of it as Eastman Theatre). Four of our percussion students
attended Thursday night; and last night I had the pleasure of hearing
your incredible rendition of the Takemitsu. The music and your playing
were profound. And every single sound that is emitted from your
instruments is like a perfectly chosen jewel. I guess that’s what close
to half a century of listening and creating will do – if you are paying
attention as you do.
Congratulations on your continuing inspirations for the world, and
for revisiting your old stomping ground and sharing with us!!
Sincerely,
Kristen Shiner McGuire”

Thank you so much Kristen. Your words carry NEXUS into its 43rd year with energy… and joy!

Related posts:

1. Read about NEXUS’ appearance at Soundstreams 30th Anniversary Concert
2. Read the Review of the Soundstreams 30th Anniversary Concert – October 2012
3. Happy Birthday, NEXUS!

JS: I am a student at Belmont University, and I also attended the LHS seminar last summer – it was a pleasure seeing your clinic in both New Jersey and Nashville!

As I was flipping through an old anthology of percussion articles from The Instrumentalist magazine, I came across one by Vida Chenoweth entitled “The Differences Among Xylophone, Marimba, and Vibraphone” (published in 1961). I immediately thought back to your clinic and wondered how Chenoweth might approach the issue, so I read on. It was a brief article, but the conclusion she reached at the end was: “In short: (1) the xylophone is a percussion instrument with a wooden keyboard; (2) the marimba is a xylophone with resonators.” In other words, it seems as though she differentiates the instruments in the same way that we differentiate a rectangle and a square.

In comparison to what I drew from your clinic – that a xylophone is technically no different except that it sounds an octave higher than written – she even makes somewhat of a contradictory statement: “Some people mistakenly identify the xylophone as a treble marimba…”. So, I am wondering what your opinion is on the matter. Is the difference that you established in your clinic one that has evolved over the years, making this very old article simply out-of-date? Or was there really once disagreement or confusion over the topic, even among professionals such as Chenoweth and others? I am also curious about your own experience as you have traveled around giving this clinic; I imagine most students are stumped by the opening question, but do most professionals seem to know the answer? Or are even they scratching their heads on the topic?

BB: I assume you’ve read through my article titled “What is a Xylorimba?”. It’s on my area of the NEXUS website, as well as on the Malletech site. Vida Chenoweth is not only a great marimbist, but also a trained and experienced (ethno)musicologist and researcher. Her definitions of the terms xylophone and marimba are in line with many classic studies of organology, which is the study of musical instrument classification. I had to take a course in it myself when I was in the World Music program at Wesleyan University. If you read books like Curt Sachs’ The History of Musical Instruments, you find the word xylophone as the principal heading for all wooden-keyed instruments. Xylophone is a technical term, with classical Greek roots (xylo = wood; phone = sound), as I probably pointed out in my clinic. It’s similar to a term like metalophone, although xylophone is also a vernacular term that people use for lots of kinds of instruments, including toy glockenspiels. Marimba is from a Bantu root found throughout East Africa, which traveled with the Spanish slave trade to Central America, in particular Guatemala. In some organological texts, the word marimba is used in a technical way to indicate the presence of resonators of any kind, including the traditional African kinds made from spherical gourds.

The first keyboard instruments made by J. C. Deagan were, I believe, glockenspiels (real ones – with steel bars). The first documented xylophone he made was in 1893, and had only a diatonic keyboard and no resonators. The first marimbas manufactured in North America were, as far as I know, made by Deagan and were first called Nabimbas, a word he concocted but obviously a take on marimba. They were closely modeled on Guatemalan marimbas, except the resonators were tubular and made of brass, as opposed to the wooden box type resonators found on Central American instruments. All of the Nabimba resonators had the traditional African/Central American feature of a membrane mounted over a small hole (as on a kazoo), creating a buzzing effect for the sound. Clearly they were a more modern copy of the Guatemalan instruments that were heard in the US during tours by the Hurtado family in the 1890s. Hurtado marimba groups also made recordings for the major labels at that time, so it is still possible to hear those instruments and performance styles today.

So I kind of stick with the comment in my article that the meaning and derivation of these terms depends on who is using them (both the terms and the instruments), and when. In my opinion, the modern North American xylophone is a hybrid instrument that evolved primarily through the efforts of manufacturers like Deagan and later Leedy, as well as some players who worked with them, like George Hamilton Green. Modern xylophones share all of the same construction features with marimbas – at least the ones made by the major manufacturers in the US and Japan. Some companies offer alternative overtone tuning (also introduced by Deagan), but the main differentiating factor is transposition. A case can be made for a currently accepted standard range for the xylophone, as well as for the marimba, but ranges have continually changed over time and are really at the discretion of manufacturers and players. My five octave Deagan 268 xylophone is a case in point, as are some instruments called for in the repertoire, like the tenor xylophone part in Orff’s Catulli Carmina.

Related posts:

1. What is a Xylorimba?
2. Marimba Question – Jan. 27, 2009
3. NEXUS PLAYS THE NOVELTY MUSIC OF GEORGE H. GREEN – Nexus Records 10273

Here HERE to read a review from the City Newspaper of NEXUS’ performance of Takemitsu’s “From me flows what you call Time” on May 8th, 2013 with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.  You can also check out the review in the Democrat and Chronicle HERE.

Related posts:

1. NEXUS to appear with the Rochester Philharmonic
2. Review of the NEXUS performance with the Austin Symphony Orchestra – April 2011
3. THE STORY OF PERCUSSION IN THE ORCHESTRA – with the Rochester Philharmonic – Nexus Records 10306

“Any more picturesque offering from the BBC Proms is hardly imaginable” -  The Financial Times

“A work of mesmerizing beauty” – The Washington Post

“an exotic showpiece…casts a hypnotic spell…a strangely beautiful, lushly erotic work” -  Louisville Courier Journal

“Their unbelievable delicacy of feeling and rich expression were something just beyond my words” – Nihon Keizai Shinbun, Toyko Japan

“a masterful compositional expose and a delight for the ears… the sort of experience that confirms why we care about music (of any sort) in the first place: it confirms what it means to be human.” Syracuse Post Standard

“35 minutes worth of extraordinary beauty” -     Birmingham Post, England

“NEXUS, for whom the percussion parts were originally composed (by Takemitsu), like the work of a fine tailor…phenomenal virtuosity” -  Tampere Aamulehti, Finland

“The timbre is so rich that the piece has a 3D quality…it opens up your ears to the possibilities of sound” -  Orange County Register

“engrossing, often haunting… (NEXUS)…created a vivid musical picture with its dazzling array of instruments” -    Los Angeles Times

“Percussion group fills the air with poetry” -  The Sacramento Bee headline

“Good things come in fives…kinetic, though still meditative, excitement” – The Times of London

“…the music’s power as it reached through the audience and the entire hall. It was a sonic feast” -  Austin360

“It became a laid-back love-in between NEXUS [and] the BBC Symphony Orchestra”  -   The Guardian

“Takemitsu’s unqualifiedly beautiful and evocative “From me flows what you call Time”…fascinating pre-concert talk…” -   Star-Ledger, Newark, NJ

Are you clicking over to the Box Office now? It really is a remarkable piece. Ryan Scott is joining NEXUS for the Thursday and Saturday performances with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of guest conductor Maestro Peter Bay. Thursday’s performance is at 7:30, and Saturday’s is at 8:00. And don’t forget the Pre-Concert Chat one hour before concert time on both days (free for all ticket-holders). Ryan and NEXUS and Maestro Bay performed this beautiful Takemitsu concerto with the Austin Symphony Orchestra a couple of years ago, and Ryan joined NEXUS in Japan and in Syracuse for performances, too. You can get more information and buy your Tickets here.
Having been written for a great hall’s 100th anniversary (Carnegie), you couldn’t ask for a more fitting or beautiful setting than the 90-year-old Kodak Hall in the Eastman Theatre. You can read more about this beauty on the NEXUS blog here.
But wait! There’s more!  The programme will also feature Boulanger’s “D’un matin de printemps”, Ravel’s “Menuet Antique” and “Le Tombeau de Couperin”, and the premiere of a new work by Karen Tanaka entitled “Water of Life”.  And May 9 will also be Music Educators Night and the RPO will honor local music teachers during the performance. Box office: (585) 454-2100. Address: 60 Gibbs Street. Venue phone: (585) 274-1100.      See you there!

Related posts:

1. NEXUS with Syracuse Symphony Feb 25 and 26
2. NEXUS with Syracuse Symphony Feb 25 and 26
3. “A pencil sharpener for the ears”: Fritz Hauser’s Focus and Shraffur

Michael Craden (1941 – 1982) was one of the original members of NEXUS until his passing in 1982.  He was formally educated in the visual arts – painting and sculpture – but he was entirely self-taught as a musician.  When NEXUS was in its formative period in the late 1960s, Michael was living in Toronto, though he had previously worked with Harry Partch in California.  In Toronto he was performing with the Boss Brass and in his own ensemble, I Ching.  It wasn’t long before he made the acquaintance of  John Wyre, and it was John who introduced Michael to the rest of the members of NEXUS.

Michael was driven to paint, and he was continually bringing his newest works to NEXUS.  Sometime in the mid-1970s Michael gave me a hand-typed self published book he had written titled, “The Artist’s Advocate,” in which he had compiled his inspirational thoughts on the nature of art and artists.  Click on the links below to read through “The Artist’s Advocate.”

The Artist’s Advocate p.1-9

The Artist’s Advocate – p.10-18

Related posts:

1. NEXUS Cover Art #4: Michael Craden
2. Meet NEXUS’ Guest Artists for our March Concerts
3. COMMON GROUND with Michael Burritt