ResearchWorks: Bridging Two Musical Worlds Through Improvisation

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Two improvising musicians from two different musical worlds - jazz and classical - meet in search of a meaningful musical dialogue. Each continues to speak in his own musical language, while tuning in to elements that can cross stylistic boundaries: expressive gesture, rhythm, motivic ideas, harmonic movement, tension and response.

And then another guest joins the conversation: an AI component, turning the encounter into something of a ménage à trois…

Together with our audience, we will explore what happens when two human musicians listen and respond to one another through improvisation, and compare this with an exchange in which AI reacts to what we play.

What does it mean to listen? What makes a musical response meaningful? Where do initiative, surprise and creativity arise? Who leads and who follows, and how fluidly can those roles change?

Through performance, experiment and discussion, we will reflect on these questions and on what improvisation can reveal about listening, creativity and communication between musicians, between human and machine, and perhaps between people more generally.

Speakers:

David Dolan, an international concert pianist, researcher and educator, has devoted part of his career to reviving classical improvisation art and its performance applications. In his worldwide solo and chamber music performances, he returns to the tradition of incorporating extemporisations within repertoire in embellished repeats, eingangs & cadenzas, as well as improvised preludes, interludes and fantasies.

His research focuses on applying expressive narrative and creativity to repertoire and improvised solo & ensemble performances, in close collaboration with Imperial College, London and the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetic in Frankfurt.

Yehudi Menuhin’s response to his CD, “When Interpretation and Improvisation Get Together”, was: “David Dolan is giving new life to classical music.”

David is a professor of classical improvisation and its applications to solo and chamber music performance at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where he heads the Centre for Creative Performance and Classical Improvisation. He also teaches at the Yehudi Menuhin School and has been conducting masterclasses and workshops at major music centres and festivals worldwide.

Dimitrios Vassilakis is an internationally acclaimed Greek saxophonist, vocalist, composer, educator and academic researcher with 4 award-winning albums for the historic jazz label Candid Records, and a jazz compilation album for Bentley Luxury Cars.

He has appeared in venues all around the globe, notably in New York at Dizzy’s Club - Jazz at The Lincoln Center, Birdland, Yale, Natural History Museum DC Smithsonian Institute, Jazz Showcase, Onassis Cultural Centre, London Jazz Festival Ronnie Scott’s and major festivals.