December is a time of celebration. And NEXUS has plenty to celebrate! This month we have confirmed several new dates – (and more are under discussion, so check back for updates!) In the New Year, you will find NEXUS performing in Ontario, Canada in March. In April NEXUS will be performing the Canadian premiere of… Read more »
By now you will have seen Robin Engelman’s blog post announcing that he will be leaving NEXUS. As you can imagine, it has been an emotional week. As a founding member of the group, Robin has been with NEXUS since the very beginning, and his wife Eleanor was the group’s administrator for decades, too. NEXUS… Read more »
Will you be within driving distance of Toronto this coming weekend? We hope you will join us for two upcoming NEXUS concerts in the heart of downtown. On Saturday evening November 21st, NEXUS performs in the MacMillan Theatre (80 Queen’s Park), presenting the Canadian premiere of Eric Ewazen’s Eternal Dance of Life
We were asked this week if NEXUS can present outreach programming for children, high school teens and university level students. And of course the answer is a resounding YES. NEXUS can provide a variety of educational and outreach services at colleges and universities, in schools and in your community in general.
Russell Hartenberger presents a hands-on West African Drumming Workshop in which participants play drum ensemble music from the Ewe, Akan and Dagomba people of Ghana. Polyrhythms, call and response, talking drums, all fascinate Russell and he enjoys sharing that fascination with workshop participants. Russell has explored these elements in his own composition The Invisible Proverb,… Read more »
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.
In his clinic Performing Live with MIDI, Bill Cahn takes a close look at the possibilities for musical expression offered by MIDI and, in the process, simplifies what can appear to be a very complicated subject. The Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) was introduced in 1982 and in the past 25 years has revolutionized music…. Read more »
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.
I’ve been reading “Touched by Sound” by John Wyre, a founding member of NEXUS until his retirement in 2002 when he moved to St John’s, Newfoundland. I knew John for many years, as I worked with NEXUS in the 1980s and helped produce his tremendous World Drums festivals. And I had the great opportunity of… Read more »
Bob Becker has recently returned from a week-long percussion residency entitled “Roots and Rhizomes” at the Banff Centre for the Arts in western Canada, where he was a faculty member. It got me thinking about the several NEXUS/Banff connections.
The mention in my summer festivals post of my last “archive” posting of the “Offbeat” NEXUS article of 1998, this is another Allan Kozinn New York Times review,
Tonight in Woodstock, New York, NEXUS’s Garry Kvistad is presenting the Paul Winter Consort at his 18th Annual Woodstock Beat in upper New York state, which benefits the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild. NEXUS had the pleasure of performing at Woodstock Beat last summer. Indeed, NEXUS spent most of last summer touring and performing at festivals: Ojai… Read more »
There are “big doings” at NEXUS this summer. I see email flying back and forth between the NEXUS guys about new pieces they are writing, new additions to the NEXUS repertoire, and some exciting new commissions that are due to arrive any minute.
Yesterday I attended the Premier’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts where Ontario’s Ministry of Culture and the Ontario Arts Council honour Ontario artists and arts organizations. The event was held at the Wychwood Barns. Two years ago, Artscape took over the old Wychwood Toronto Transit streetcar repair barns and transformed them into a community… Read more »
Walking around Toronto this week, I see gardens that are overflowing with an abundance of lush iris blossoms. It puts me in mind of Bob Becker who has raised irises in his garden for years. He has planted a number of Zwilich commission called “Rituals”?) At the end of next month, Bob travels to Delaware… Read more »
