Unpopular Music

Table of Contents

Percussion Music? /  The Percussion Music Environment

The Globalization of Music

Improvisation / The First Improvised Concert

Collaborating With Symphony Orchestras

World Music (Before There Was “World Music”)

Novelty Ragtime Music / NEXUS Compositions With Orchestras

Music for Film  / China – May 1984 

The 1967 Canada Centennial Tour of The Toronto Symphony Orchestra

Musings on the Maestro – Seiji Ozawa (Toronto, Chicago, Tanglewood,

           Boston Symphony Hall, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Tokyo Suntory Hall)

On Stage with NEXUS  

A Mediocre Essay On Mediocrity / Competitions – for Artists?

On the Ways Music Is Perceived / Listening – A Necessary Skill

Imaginary Music (or is it?) / Ambiguity – The Spice of the Percussionists’ Art

Close Encounters of the Composer Kind  (Boulez, Cage, Copland, Oliveros.

          Husa, Reich, Schuller, Stravinsky, Takemitsu, Varèse, Zwilich)

Google and Freeform Improvisation / The Longest Night In Manhattan

Improvisation and Diversity / Cultural Encounters in Hawaii

Authority and Motivation in the Symphony Orchestra 

Sounds I Was Never Taught to Play / Dutch Masters and the Missing Dog

Dinner at Charlie Trotter’s / An Improbable Epilogue

Appendix 1: A History of NEXUS Performances - 1968 to 2023

William L. (Bill) Cahn has been a member of the NEXUS percussion group since 1971, and was the principal percussionist in the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra from 1968 to 1995. Born in Philadelphia in 1946, Bill has performed with conductors, composers, ensembles, and artists representing diverse musical styles - Chet Atkins, Pierre Boulez, John Cage, Aaron Copland, Sir Andrew Davis, Chuck Mangione, Mitch Miller, Seiji Ozawa, Steve Reich, Doc Severensen, Leopold Stokowski, Igor Stravinsky, Edgar Varèse, and Paul Winter. From 2006 to 2015 Bill was an Associate Professor of Percussion at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. He was also a faculty artist at the Showa Academy of the Arts in Japan from 1998 to 2015, and he has served as a faculty artist at the Banff Centre for the Arts. Bill has produced 10 CDs for NEXUS - including two CDs with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. He has written several books and numerous articles about music and percussion. His book, "CREATIVE MUSIC MAKING," on freeform improvisation was published by Routledge Books in 2005. His compositions are published and distributed worldwide by Bachovich Music, HoneyRock Publishing, Marimba Productions, Meredith Music, Warner Brothers Music, Wimbledon Music and William L. Cahn Publishing. Bill has received the Rochester Philharmonic League's FANFARE AWARD (1988) for a "significant contribution to music education" Mu Phi Epsilon's MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR AWARD (1993), and with NEXUS, the TORONTO ARTS AWARD in music (1989), the BANFF CENTRE FOR THE ARTS NATIONAL AWARD (1997), and induction into the Percussive Arts Society's HALL OF FAME (1999). In 2005 he received the SABIAN LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD, and in 2015 the Arts and Cultural Council for Greater Rochester LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD. In 2006 he received a GRAMMY Award as a percussionist with the Paul Winter Consort on the DVD titled, "2004 Solstice Concert."