Thousand Oaks, CA - The world-renowned NEXUS percussion ensemble will present a free concert at California Lutheran University on Friday, March 2.

Themusicians dubbed the “high priests of the percussion world” by The New York Times will perform at 8 p.m. in Samuelson Chapel on the Thousand Oaks campus.

BobBecker, Bill Cahn, Russell Hartenberger and Garry Kvistad are revered not just for their virtuosity and improvisational skills, but also for their ability to create extraordinary music out of just about anything including Swiss cowbells, Chinese drums, Tibetan prayer bowls, Middle Eastern hand drums and Southeast Asian water buffalo bells.

After more than four decades of continuous collaboration, the four master percussionists have amassed a repertoire ranging from military music to the novelty ragtime of the 1920s and from the haunting rhythms of Africa to ground-breaking compositions by some of the world’s leading composers. Japanese master Toru Takemitsu composed one of their signature pieces, “From me flows what you call Time.” This work, written with each NEXUS member’s personality in mind, was premiered at Carnegie Hall’s centennial celebration in 1990 with Seiji Ozawa conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 2005, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich composed “Rituals” for NEXUS and the IRIS Chamber Orchestra.

NEXUS created the musical score for the National Film Board’s award-winningdocumentary “Inside Time.” The group also created the chilling score for the Academy Award-winning feature-length documentary “The Man Who Skied Down Everest.” TV and radio broadcasters such as CBS, PBS and CBC have regularly featured the ensemble.

The Toronto-based quartet has performed with every major symphony orchestra in Canada and the United States, as well as with orchestras in London, Birmingham, Germany, Tokyo, France, Norway, Taipei and Finland. It was the first Western percussion group to perform in the People’s Republic of China.

The chapel is located south of Olsen Road near the corner of Campus Drive in Thousand Oaks. Additional parking is available at the corner of Olsen and Mountclef Boulevard.

CLU’s Artists and Speakers Committee is sponsoring the concert. For more information, contact Melissa Maxwell-Doherty at 805-493-3228.