Discover your inner improvisational voice … and how to express that voice through any instrument.
Singers and instrumentalists of all ages are welcome to join this exploration—bring your family, or go it alone.
There are no maps. If you are frightened by key signatures, clefs, accidentals, and opus numbers, fear not: we will be working with oral traditions that are as old as human life and that predate literacy of any kind. Melodic and harmonic improvisation do not require a license to operate heavy equipment!
Your guides will be members of New England Conservatory's Contemporary Improvisation faculty, and we invite you to play with us today as one of many expressions of the 40th anniversary of this innovative and inspiring musical philosophy. On "Opening Our Doors Day," it's our way of opening your musical doors to self-expression.
Hankus Netsky, chair of NEC's Contemporary Improvisation department, plays piano, accordion, saxophone, sings—just to get the list going. In the 1970s he founded the Klezmer Conservatory Band, which rode at the forefront of the Klezmer revival, which now constitutes a diverse and popular genre.
Eden MacAdam Somer is a violinist, singer, and dancer who is known throughout New England as a fiddler at contra dances. She chairs the new Contemporary Improvisation program for youth and adult learners in NEC's Preparatory School and School of Continuing Education, and has brought barn dances to NEC—there are ones scheduled for October 7 and 27!
Are you an NEC faculty member or student who is giving a school concert? Submit your artist and repertoire information now!
SARAH VAUGHAN