METRIC (Modernizing European Higher Music Education through Improvisation) is a cooperative network of several leading European conservatoires and the AEC, with the aim to focus on the modernisation of higher music education through intensive international cooperation in the field of improvisation.

On Wednesday 12 October, the first open online event will start the series of free sessions about improvisation delivered by experts from the partner institutions. 

In this first session, Anne La Berge from the Royal Conservatoire The Hague will speak about collaborative musical improvisation:

Collaborative musical improvisation requires communication skills such as awareness, empathy and timing. It also calls for creative use of one’s instrument in a multitude of settings. Scores that invite and guide improvisation range from graphic images, music notation, audio, video, written instructions to various computer technologies and beyond. Scores also provide an opportunity to grapple with other artists’ perspectives and to archive our own artistic work.

The analytic and performative skills that one develops when confronted with improvisation are invaluable intellectual and practical tools for making music on all levels. Likewise the conundrums that arise when puzzling out what to include when making one’s own score give musicians the opportunity to experiment and develop their own creative voices as makers.

This presentation will include a short overview of specific scores that I have used in classroom and workshop settings in middle and higher education with further discussion of how I have used strategies and materials for creating scores that use improvisation. The focus will be the educational contribution improvisational scores makes on the overall development of the composer/performer/interpreter.

To attend the session, join the Zoom meeting on Wednesday 12 October at 18:00 CET!

To stay informed about future open sessions, subscribe to the METRIC Newsletter!