Blog

August, 2015 – I’m happy to announce the newest CD by NEXUS – “Persian Songs” (NEXUS Records #10926). The group’s 16th CD under the “NEXUS Records” label features classical vocalist, Sepideh Raissadat, performing arrangements by NEXUS member, Russell Hartenberger.  A live performance of “Persian Songs” by NEXUS will be a featured event at the 2015… 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 »

Another summer session at the Eastman School of Music provided yet one more amazing experience with Creative Music Making – free form improvisation – this time explored by high-school-age students coming to Rochester from all over the world. This summer’s CMM group included 25 young musicians, divided into 2 classes. The classes each met for… 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 »

The week of April 17 through 22 was another busy time for NEXUS.  The first few days were spent in rehearsals for the April 19 concert at Trinity Lutheran Church in Kingston on the Ulster (NY) Chamber Music Series.  The repertoire included a new work, “Chiaroscuro,” by Baird Hersey for the vocal ensemble, Prana, and… Read more »

Drummers’ Heritage Day, May 2, 2015 included four events as part of the Percussion Rochester ’15 Festival.  Three of the four events honored Revolutionary War fifers and drummers interred in local cemeteries – East Bloomfield, NY, the West Bloomfield, NY Pioneer Cemetery, and the Mt. Hope Cemetery in Rochester, NY – in tribute to the… Read more »

As mentioned in several previous blog postings, I frequently receive emailed questions on various percussion-related subjects. Question: After seeing the tubophone photo in your blog posting titled, “Instruments You Can’t Buy (Part 1 – Orchestra Repertoire)“ I’m considering the possibility of constructing one.  Can you offer any suggestions? Response: For the tubophone described in the blog,… 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 »