Guest Workshop: Stephen Nachmanovitch, improv
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
5:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Step into the transformative world of improvisation with Stephen Nachmanovitch, a visionary violinist, acclaimed author, and trailblazer in creative expression. This interactive workshop is a rare opportunity to unleash your imagination and connect with others through the powerful medium of free improvisation.
Whether you’re a musician, dancer, artist, or simply someone eager to explore your creative potential, this session offers an inspiring space to break boundaries, transcend cultural and artistic divides, and discover new ways to express yourself. Through collaboration and spontaneous creation, we’ll embark on a shared journey that celebrates the magic of listening, responding, and being fully present in the moment.
Don’t miss this chance to awaken your creative spirit and explore the endless possibilities of improvisation!
To learn more about Stephen and his accomplishments, please visit https://www.freeplay.com/
About the Artist:
Stephen Nachmanovitch is an internationally celebrated improvisational violinist whose work bridges music, dance, theater, and multimedia arts. A pioneer in free improvisation on violin, viola, and electric violin in the 1970s, Stephen has taught and lectured widely in the United States and abroad on creativity and the spiritual underpinnings of art. Stephen graduated in 1971 from Harvard and in 1975 from the University of California, where he earned a Ph.D. in the History of Consciousness for an exploration of William Blake. His mentor was the anthropologist and philosopher Gregory Bateson. Stephen is the author of Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art (Penguin, 1990) and The Art of IS: Improvising as a Way of Life (New World Library, 2019). He has created computer software including The World Music Menu and Visual Music Tone Painter. His most recent albums include Hermitage of Thrushes (see review in the Strad magazine July 2022) and From this World, Another in collaboration with clarinetist David Rothenberg.
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“Without play, learning and evolution are impossible. Play is the taproot from which original art springs;…Technique itself springs from play, because we can acquire technique only by the practice of practice, by persistently experimenting and playing with our tools and testing their limits and resistances.”
“To play is to free ourselves from arbitrary restrictions and expand our field of action. Our play fosters richness of response and adaptive flexibility. This is the evolutionary value of play - play makes us flexible. By reinterpreting reality and begetting novelty, we keep from becoming rigid.”
(Stephen Nachmanovitch, Free Play - Improvisation in Life and Art (1990: pp. 42 - 43)
- Location
- Moores School of Music, Room 175
- Cost
- Free
- Contact
- msmprog@central.uh.edu