NEXUS has always been a groundbreaking ensemble and Saturday night, June 4th was no exception. We had the honor of being the first percussion group to play at the 35-year-old Rockport Chamber Music Festival in the spectacular Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport, Massachusetts. One feels like a 3-D component of a Norman Rockwell painting… Read more »
On April 9, I had the tremendous pleasure of speaking to an audience of 800 attendees of the TEDx Makers conference at Monmouth University in New Jersey. It was an honor to be among 30 “Makers” chosen to talk about what we had created. In my case, I talked about the quest to hear ancient… Read more »
I recently attended a performance of the New York Theatre Ballet entitled Legends & Visionaries. It took place at the cool little theater of New York Live Arts on 19th Street in Manhattan (newyorklivearts.org). The dance performance included a work by Philip Glass entitled Etudes for Piano, nos. 1-10, arranged by Josh Quillen, the director… Read more »
Pierre Boulez, composer and conductor, passed away on January 5 at the age of 90. It is said that conductors live long lives due to their intense mental and physical activity during performances. His compositions are still considered by many to be avant-garde due to their complexity. Composer Edgard Varèse has attributed this attitude to… Read more »
From Chimalong Junior to Chimalong Panacea, it’s all about children and music. In the early 1980s when Diane and I started our family, there were no high-quality musical instruments on the market for children that I was aware of. So I had an idea to take the musically tuned tubes from our line of Woodstock… Read more »
NEXUS recently performed in Toronto with the Toronto Children’s Chorus. The concert took place in the magnificent St. Anne’s Church, which was founded in 1862 and reconstructed in 1920 in the style of the Byzantine Revival. The church interior is decorated and painted with murals by artists who were members of Canada’s famous Group of… Read more »
Right here in the little village of Woodstock, NY, a major film festival is now in its 16th year: WoodstockFilmFestival.com. This season, I am happy to report that our 8-minute film, Chimes for Autism: Tyler’s Story, was accepted in the short documentary category and had two sold out screenings during the festival. There were five… Read more »
This region, which is the home of Woodstock Chimes, is known for its beautiful environment, its history and its culture. There are almost too many things to choose from, such as the many wonderful festivals of all sorts. I recently played in the orchestra for the Festival of the Voice in Phoenicia, NY. This is… Read more »
I have been producing a free, one-day, world-class percussion festival every other year since 2009. While I try to mix up the offering, four groups have participated in each of the three festivals and will appear in the coming festival September 12th of this year. They include NEXUS, Jack DeJohnette, POOK and The Great American… Read more »
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart lived for only 35 years, creating I some of the most incredible music during his short stay on this planet. Amy Winehouse lived for only 27 years, also creating a wealth of music, albeit quite different. In 1984, the movie Amadeus offered the public a fictionalized account of Mozart’s life based on… Read more »
Every now and then I have the pleasure of working with young students and it happened recently when I was invited to give workshops and a concert at the Wilbraham Monson Academy in central Massachusetts. The students there were wonderfully receptive to the concepts and ideas that I presented relating to instrument building, tuning, business… Read more »
April is National Autism Awareness Month and April 2nd is World Autism Awareness Day. I am very proud of the initiative that we took a year ago in developing the Woodstock Chimes for Autism, which was inspired by 8-year-old Tyler Doi, who has high-functioning autism and an extraordinary musical acuity that enables him to identify… Read more »
Drum circles in the broadest sense have been around since the first caveman started beating on a log. There is something about drumming that is both primal and cathartic. Unlike most other instruments, it is possible for anyone – including non-musicians – to play rhythms on a drum (or any percussion instrument) immediately and join… Read more »
When I was growing up everything was pretty black and white. You drove a Ford or a Chevy. You drank a Coke or a Pepsi. You had a choice of NBC, CBS, ABC and (eventually) PBS on TV. We now live in an interesting time where you have a zillion choices. We are offered dozens… Read more »
