I’ve known from a young age that good sounds are healing, and I’ve made the study of music and sounds my life’s work. I have had a few “sound” mentors who have helped open my ears. Among them were Pauline Oliveros, John Cage, Harry Partch and Lou Harrison. Pauline taught us “Deep Listening,” whereby you… Read more »
I have known Alan and Janet Abel for sixty-four years and every one of those years has been a blessing. Like so many others, I feel like they are my “second parents,” so the loss of Mr. Abel is much like losing a member of my own family. This story is a small tribute to… Read more »
In 1960, I was a student in the tenth grade at Putnam City High School in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. My English teacher, Mrs. Thomas, gave our class an assignment to research the occupation that each of us hoped to pursue and write an essay about it. She gave us a list of questions to use… Read more »
Hi all. We hope all of you are keeping well and STAYING HOME! All of us here are doing fine. Thank you to all of you who have continued to visit our Facebook page, and to our new Facebook followers who have come on board in the last few weeks. There have been quite a… Read more »
* To order online: 1) place order by email to: billcahn@aol.com OR by phone/text to: (585) 354-5843 2) a link to DropBox will be emailed back to you 3) the DropBox link will enable you to download the digital book (pdf file) 4) an invoice payable in 10-days… Read more »
It’s the beginning of 2020 and I am already reminiscing about 2019. Here’s a short video of the highlights and photos from our production of the Drum Boogie Festival last September in Woodstock, NY. We are very proud of it and hope you’ll enjoy checking it out. It’s a lot of work putting this together,… Read more »
Happy New Year to you all! The last few months of 2019 treated us very well – and featured spectacular collaborations, too. In Eastman’s Kilbourn Hall – where this whole “NEXUS thing” began in 1971 – we were part of this year’s Rochester Fringe Festival.
Q: What’s the difference between trampolines and timpani?A: You don’t have to take your shoes off when you jump on timpani. Trampolines and timpani have a few things in common. They both have membranes, are fun to play on, and you can impress people of the opposite sex if you are good at either one…. Read more »
John Keiser presenting the award to Garry Woodstock Chimes was recently honored for its 40 years of success in the gift industry by the leading sales organization OneCoast. During their annual sales meeting in Atlanta, John Keiser, CEO of OneCoast, presented a beautiful glass sculpture / trophy to us. For our acceptance speech, we showed… Read more »
The Woodstock Chimes Fund produces the Drum Boogie Festival every other year. On September 7th of this year (the 10th anniversary of the Boogie), we held the daylong festival here in Woodstock and it was absolutely amazing. The weather was perfect and the music outrageous (Paul Winter, Jack DeJohnette, NEXUS and many more). We had… Read more »
NEXUS Playing Cage’s Dance Music for Elfrid Credit: Donald Dietz, courtesy of The John Cage Trust Long ago I knew that music would be my future. I knew then that percussion specifically would be my passion. This all started in the fourth grade when I joined the school band. Through the years I’ve come to… Read more »
A friend of ours, Anne, began a 3,000 mile bike tour from the East Coast to the West Coast on May 1st. There was a send-off gathering at a local pub where I gave her a Hohner Blues Band Harmonica for the trip. Luckily it didn’t add too much weight to her gear and she… Read more »
It’s Spring – and a LOT is happening. Russell Hartenberger has been at Virginia Tech workshopping his new piece “Magic Time” commissioned by Escape Ten. Tonight (May 4th) is the premiere. The duo is performing “Magic Time” on marimba with a quintet (the Virginia Tech Percussion Ensemble ) performing on tuned cymbals newly created for… Read more »
In honour of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich birthday, here is an interview where she shares her thoughts on writing this concerto Rituals for NEXUS. Frank Oteri at New Music Box calls the interview Goose Bumps In The Candy Shop. Ellen has some intriguing comments about percussion instruments and their intrinsic nature: FJO: My favorite piece of… Read more »
New style music boxes are a favorite gift for Valentine’s Day. I have a number of music boxes in my collection and one of my favorites is a large, rare Regina music box from 1899. It was made after the company moved from Germany to New Jersey. These antique instruments used large metal disks to… Read more »
