ROBIN ENGELMAN Six years ago, on February 26th 2016, we received the sad news of the passing of NEXUS founding member Robin Engelman. The tributes poured in – moving, funny, telling – as colleagues, students, friends read the announcement. You can see these amazing comments on the home page of Robin’s website at www.robinengelman.com. Andrew… Read more »
VIRGILIANA We kicked off 2013 with two premieres. At the New Music Festival at the University of Toronto we presented the newly-commissioned work “Virgiliana” by Canadian composer Norbert Palej. It was his strong response to “Naples’ sun-bathed heat” and the “cool damp gloom and millennia-old mysteries” of the caves and grottos associated with Virgil and… Read more »
FEELING THE PULSE Spring touring took us to California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, the Episcopal Collegiate School in Little Rock AR, La Grange College GA and Wittenberg University OH. We opened each with Music For Pieces Of Wood, and we had guests provide “the pulse”: Dave Johnson, Eric Saoud, Ken Passmore and Marc Smarelli… Read more »
MORE ABOUT TALKING DRUMS First a quick flashback to 2008 – some more details about Russell Hartenbergers’s Talking Drum Symposim. He says, “I organized a “Talking Drum Symposium” which was sponsored by the Jackman Humanities Institute at the University of Toronto. The featured guests were John Miller Chernoff, author of “African Rhythm and African Sensibility,”… Read more »
DANCE MUSIC FOR ELFRID IDE HERE is a radio show aired of Garry and Russell in conversation with Laura Kuhn, Exec.Dir. of the John Cage Trust at Bard College. They had fun talking about Cage and sundry related topics. You will also hear 2 movements of our recording of Cage’s Dance Music for Elfrid Ide,… Read more »
1993 KROUMATA AND AMADINDA IN BUDAPEST In Spring’93 the New York Times pointed out that “Canada takes the spotlight at this year’s Budapest Spring Festival”. We were honoured to represent Canada along with the Canadian Brass, Trio Lyrika, flautist Robert Aitken, pianist Katja Cerovsek and violinists Corey Cerovsek and Erika Raum. (In ‘92, Erika had… Read more »
#NEXUSat50 1991 ORIGINS We decided to release our Direct-to-Disc LP Ragtime Concert of 1976 on CD. It would still be a recording of a live performance in every meaning of the word. We also recorded ORIGINS in 1991 and, similar to the ragtime recording, the music on ORIGINS was recorded directly from the studio floor… Read more »
#NEXUSat50 1986 RARE INSTRUMENTS FOR GEORGE HAMILTON GREEN – with sound bytes: Between an Australian tour, Expo86 World Drums, Kennedy Center with Sharda Sahai (PASIC86) and a week-long tour of Tennessee, we found time to go into McClear Place in Toronto (photo attached) and record THE NOVELTY MUSIC OF GEORGE HAMILTON GREEN. Bob Becker says,… Read more »
#NEXUSat50 1984 FOUR MONTH WORLD TOUR: CHINA! In May we embarked on a tour that would take us to 10 countries. This meant putting a great many other things in Life on hold – but what an opportunity! We began in China where we were the first Western percussion group to perform in the People’s… Read more »
1980 SYMPHONY POPS and ERICH KUNZEL We were developing repertoire for symphonic pops concerts mostly centered around orchestrations of the novelty ragtime music that Bob Becker and @BillCahn had arranged. John Wyre’s and Bill’s orchestra positions in Toronto and Rochester connected them with Erich Kunzel who was becoming a leading pops conductor in North America…. Read more »
1977: FIRST NEXUS COMMISSION Bob Becker tells us that “The first piece commissioned by NEXUS came from the Canadian composer Bruce Mather in 1977. (We would premiere it in April ’78.) At that time, Bruce’s music was known only vaguely by most of us, but Robin Engelman had become an admirer. He made the commission… Read more »
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 »
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 »
The Blackearth Percussion Group was conceived in 1971, formed in 1972 and disbanded in 1979. It was inspired in part by Jan Williams’ New Percussion Quartet of Buffalo and named after a small farm town in central Wisconsin. I was one of the original group members at age 22, along with my brother Rick Kvistad… Read more »
In response to the request on NEXUS’ Facebook, here are a few more John Cage recollections. In June, 1984 NEXUS embarked on a major European tour lasting over two months. Our first stop on the trip was Amsterdam and the Holland Festival. We played two concerts there, including a monumental all-night improvisation in the Nieuwe… Read more »
