With the 21C Music Festival about to begin (January 16-20), we are so lucky to be based in Toronto where we can take in its awesome line-up featuring the great Terry Riley and our friends and fellow-percussionists, Sō Percussion.
Here in Canada, we celebrate Thanksgiving on Monday, October 8. What more fitting time to give a BIG THANK YOU to all of you who contributed to our Kickstarter Campaign for Drumming At 50. September was definitely exciting – if a bit nerve-wracking! We were fund-raising for our Video Recording with Sō Percussion and friends… Read more »
Epic. Exhilarating. Revolutionary. Iconic. Words that describe Steve Reich’s monumental DRUMMING. Russell Hartenberger had a thought. And now that thought has evolved into an exciting project, backed 100% by Steve Reich: We have joined with the wonderful Sō Percussion to create a videography of DRUMMING in celebration of the piece’s 50th Anniversary!
From Sept. 4 through 6, NEXUS will be kicking off Ithaca College’s school year with a series of exciting events. All PRESENTATIONS (INCLUDING THE Sept. 6th CONCERT) ARE FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC as well as to the Ithaca students. We are thrilled that Gordon Stout, (marimbist, composer, and educator – lucky Ithaca College!),… Read more »
If you’ve followed us on Facebook, you’ll know it’s been a busy and varied summer. Bill has been involved in Eastman’s Summer Horizons with young music students in his wonderful program “Creative Music Making”. We will be presenting that program at Ithaca College in early September, so stay tuned, as it will be open to… Read more »
NEXUS Percussion recently record with So Percussion, but Josh’s other group, NYU Steel, is a longtime performer at my biennial Drum Boogie Festival in Woodstock, NY. I had a blast talking with Josh about music in this two-part podcast, part of which featured a fun tour of my studio at Woodstock Chimes headquarters. Check it… Read more »
Thanks to Lauren Vogel Weiss for her article on our busy spring in the PAS Rhythm/Scene newsletter, June issue. She covered our performance with guest Frank Cassara with the Northern Dutchess Symphony Orchestra at the Culinary Institute of American under the baton of Kathleen Beckman; our Princeton University appearance with SōPercussion celebrating Steve Reich with… Read more »
It’s been a busy month in Lake Wobegon – I mean Woodstock. Our group NEXUS performed several times and recorded three pieces of Steve Reich’s music with the members of So Percussion and other amazing musicians. One of the sessions was a four-camera video recording at Princeton University of Reich’s Drumming, which is over an… Read more »
Never rains but it pours! April is full, Full, FULL! This coming weekend the vans get loaded with instruments, and NEXUS heads to Garry’s studio to meet up with So Percussion and a stellar group of guests. Yup, it’s studio time with some heavy duty rehearsing for a super-project that we can’t wait to tell… Read more »
Those were the words given to us by our “high school” orchestra conductor, Thor Johnson, when we were playing a difficult new work by a Japanese composer in the mid-1960s. If you say each word on four beats, fitting the syllables equally in each beat, it helps create a rhythm of 2 + 3 +… Read more »
CONGRATULATIONS to Bob Becker who has been named as one of Musical America’s Top 30 Professionals of the Year. Musical America says, “As a composer, arranger, and founding member of the NEXUS percussion ensemble, Bob Becker has influenced virtually every aspect of percussion performance and repertoire in the profession. And he is renowned as a… Read more »
I joined Steve Reich and Musicians in 1979, touring and recording with them for nearly 40 years. Steve’s music transcends all boundaries. One unique technique Steve developed is called “phasing,” where two players begin in unison (playing the same material in the same time) and one speeds up slightly until a “canon” is formed. This… Read more »
On November 8th, Russell received the World Award of Arts from the World Cultural Council. The ceremony took place at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.
It has been an incredibly busy spring for NEXUS members. After our March and April residencies in Houston TX and Potsdam NY, June 5 took us into Reich, Rhythm and Repetition” Symposium in Toronto. Russell has been on tour with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in Europe,
The NEXUS members never sit still. Even a winter “respite” has taken Russell to the Sacher music archive and its Steve Reich Collection in Basel, Switzerland; Bob’s heading out on U.S. tour dates; Garry is heading to warmer climes to the south. Bill and Ray are hardier types enjoying brisk temperatures and a multitude of… Read more »
