Faculty:

Daniele Roccato: Strings

Abbie Conant: Brass

Camilla Hoitenga: Woodwinds

Daan Vandewalle: Piano and Keyboards

Nicholas Isherwood: Voice

About:

The Exploratory is different. All of the students work with all of the professors and composer-performers can participate as well. Half of our time is spent working on repertory and half on improvisation. Mixed groups of improvisers are formed and stay together throughout the course, changing professor each day so that all can benefit from the variety of perspectives and methods.

We will be in a musical (and actual) convent. There will be no distractions. For a week, we will only devote ourselves to the study of new music, 20th century music and improvisation. Building on our successful THE EXPLORATORY 2023 at the Fondazione Cini, we will work in a spirit of collaboration, not competition, and learn from each other. All of the musicians have a unique background that they contribute to the development of the group.

Composers will work in a completely different way from most courses. There is no composition professor per se and yet we are all composition professors, being composer-performers ourselves (as a reminder, before 1900 there were ONLY composer-performers). Composers will move freely between the instrumental classes, focusing on the disciplines for which they most need to progress and will participate in the improvisation workshops along with the other musicians. In addition to this new method of learning composition, all of the participant composers will have the chance to send a short piece that will be performed and recorded by the faculty, after discussing any suggested changes to the score and after rehearsing with the composers.

The culmination of the week will be a concert by and for the participants. Those who have pieces ready will present them in the final performance and all of the improvisation groups will present their work. All of the participants will be able to perform.

Download the flyer here