Back-to-School Contemporary Improvisation Concert

NEC's Contemporary Improvisation department, celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, offers a unique program that allows students to forge a distinctive, personal style of improvisation through rigorous aural training combined with an individually tailored course of study. Our program is one of the few places in the world where one can absorb and synthesize the music of other cultures in a personal and creative way.

On the eve of the first day of classes, CI faculty welcome students with this musical get-together, in which faculty perform a diverse repertoire of traditional, contemporary, and original music that is representative of their own ethos as performers and teachers. It's a chance to get a first look at the musicians who will span everything from Marlon Brando to barn dances in concerts this year.

Ran Blake solo piano

Anthony Coleman solo piano

Dominique Eade vocal solo

Tanya Kalmanovitch improvisations with Ted Reichman and Coleman

Jerry Leake solo percussion

Eden MacAdam-Somer improvisations with Hankus Netsky

Nedelka Prescod improvisations with Amir Milstein and Leake

Bert Seager Noctane with his trio Kombucha: Sean Farias, bass, Austin McMahon, drums

David Zoffer, piano, with his Prep jazz faculty quartet: Gary Fieldman, percussion; Rebecca Shrimpton, vocals; Jamie Stewardson, guitar