NEXUS
Bob Becker, Bill Cahn, Robin Engelman, Russell Hartenberger, John Wyre
Opens 31st Season with New Film Score
The historic George Eastman House will host NEXUS
in the premier of an original musical accompaniment
for the classic 1926 Japanese silent film,
“A Page of Madness” by Teinosuke Kinugasa
2001/2002 Season
NEXUS, the internationally-acclaimed, Toronto-based percussion group will begin its 31st concert season on September 29, 2001 with the world premier of a new film score at the Dryden Theatre of the George Eastman House – the world’s foremost museum of photography and film – in Rochester, New York.
Since their first all improvised concert in 1971, NEXUS has been captivating audiences with an eclectic mix of music drawn from all over the Globe. Their virtuosity and innovative programming have inspired compositions from some of the greatest composers of our time. The five-man ensemble, called “the high priests of percussion” by the New York Times, will present an original musical accompaniment to a pioneering Japanese silent film produced in 1926 .
Set in an insane asylum, “A Page of Madness” by Teinosuke Kinugasa is charged with psychological and emotional drama. By the mid-1920s Kinugasa was already familiar with the art form of film. He was likely influenced by films such as the German Expressionist “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”&Mac226; (1919). According to Kinugasa, the idea of producing a film on the subject of insanity occurred to him after he visited the Matsuzawa Mental Hospital at Setagaya in Tokyo. Though it may occasionally try to create what it feels like to be one of the characters, this film is much more concerned with the impression the creator himself felt when confronted with his subject matter. He picks and chooses scenes, the sum total of which is the impression of the emotion itself.
The music of NEXUS will be performed live on a special selection of percussion instruments collected by the ensemble from around the world. Described as “mysterious and otherworldly” by New York Magazine and as a “paradise of the mind” in the London press, the group’s music has graced a number of films over the years since their original score to the 1975 Academy Award-winning documentary, “The Man Who Skied Down Everest.”
Recent compact discs by NEXUS include Takemitsu’s “From me flows what you call Time”, performed with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra on the SONY Classics label and Garden of Sounds, featuring virtuoso clarinetist, Richard Stoltzman, on the “BIS” label.
