Welcome!
I have been on a journey with improvisation ever since being introduced to the writings of Stephen Nachmanovitch in 2012 as a dear friend was finishing her (amazing) dissertation on play theory and musical analysis. Improvisation was always such a mystery to me. Those who had the skill were wizards...geniuses...something I could admire but never create myself.
I am a classically trained musician with no prior (intentional) experience with improvisation until I started exploring these concepts with small ensembles like The Josquin Project. These explorations helped form a sequence which I then used with my large ensembles during the 2013-2014 academic year. The process was extremely exciting! We made "beautiful" sounds, "ugly" sounds, non-western sounds, non-vocal sounds, long sounds, short sounds, and as many sounds as our imaginations would create. For an in depth look at the process and the results, including the sequence used, check out the August 2015 Choral Journal.
This blog will document some of the experiences my ensembles had over the 2014-2015 academic year as well as serve as a way to disseminate information gathered during continued research in this area including work with The Genetic Choir, the International Society for Improvised Music, and the experimental music group Collapss.
This is a journey I never anticipated. I am thrilled to share it with you!
