Garry Kvistad: Blog

On March 1st, Diane and I attended an amazing event at The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in New York City. It was a celebration of the installation of an exhibit of a massive 12 ton, two piece sculpture by the contemporary Chinese artist Xu Bing. The work completed in 2010 after two… Read more »

Work hard, play hard is an old saying that I firmly believe in. The balance between work and recreation is important and the lines are often blurred. Ideally, one can do both at all times. In other words, enjoying your work and learning from your recreation is a worthwhile goal. I find myself becoming bored… Read more »

With the holidays all around us, I think of family, food and music more than ever. I just returned from a trip to San Francisco where my brother Rick (he’s the principal percussionist with the SF Opera) and I performed at the Acoustical Society of America’s annual conference. This trip included family, lots of food… Read more »

As I road my bike to work today, I thought about the similarities of the ride and that of doing business.  We live on a hill and Woodstock Chimes is on another hill here in the Catskills of Upstate New York.  In between is the magnificent Ashokan Reservoir which has supplied clean water to New… Read more »

Drum Boogie Festival® 2013 Comes to Woodstock, NY! A Free World-Class Music Festival with Dance & Voice WOODSTOCK, New York – (July 19, 2013) – The Drum Boogie Festival www.drumboogiefestival.com  is a free, one-day music festival which is family-oriented and multi-cultural, celebrating the diverse styles of music, dance and voice from around the world. It… Read more »

I’ve always been interested in the creation of new things. My contribution however has mostly been in the improvement of existing things. I did not invent the windchime but I certainly made some meaningful improvements. Similar items have been around for literally thousands of years. We all know ancient civilizations have used windbells of various… Read more »

Or, in this case, learn to read music if you’re going to tattoo musical notation to someone’s arm – permanently! Recently, I had the unique experience of meeting a young guy working on a construction crew who had a giant tattoo wrapping around  his arm from his wrist to his elbow.  He was in his… Read more »

I have just finished participating in an amazing four day percussion institute at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, right across the state line from St. Louis. According to the SIUE website, the campus is “situated on 2,660 acres of beautiful, forested woodland atop the bluffs overlooking the natural beauty of the Mississippi River’s rich bottom… Read more »

Click HERE for a PDF file with details! I am happy to announce the Southern Illinois University Percussion Institute to be held in Edwardsville from June 13 – 16.  I will be joining Daniel R. Smithiger (SIUE Faculty, Percussion), Miles Vandiver (SIUE Jazz Faculty, Drumset), Jason Long (Coordinator of Percussion, Webb City High School) and… Read more »

I recently visited the famous eco-park lagoon at Xel-Ha on the Mayan Riviera between Playa del Carmen and Tulum in Mexico.  This is an amazing sanctuary of sea and land creatures and a fun place to spend a day.  For a reasonable entrance fee, you can swim with giant tropical fish and enjoy unlimited amounts… Read more »

I was treated to a great surprise recently while on a trip to North Carolina.  It seems there is an extraordinary boy named Nolan from Chapel Hill that is in love with Woodstock Chimes.  He visits our website daily (www.chimes.com) and has gotten to know our product line better than most people!  The managers of… Read more »

  Roll Magazine which covers art, music, theater, cinema, lifestyles and events throughout New York’s Hudson Valley region, has an article about little ole me in this month’s (December 2010) issue.  What’s cool about the online version are the video tours of my music studio and the Woodstock Chimes showroom of my products (you can… Read more »

Google has come out with a new cell phone called the NEXUS S.  Maybe they need a ringtone from NEXUS, the percussion group.  How about John Cages’s 4′ 33″ or Steve Reich’s Complete Drumming (that would give you an hour to answer your phone)?   This phone, the Nexus S, bears little resemblance to Google’s… Read more »