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Music for People will kick off concert, week-long improvisation workshop

Music for People will host a summer music workshop event, The Art of Improvisation, July 30 to Aug. 4 at The State University of New York Fredonia.

The opening concert will be this Saturday at 8 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church, 25 Church St., Fredonia. Admission is free.

Music For People, founded by cellist David Darling and flautist Bonnie Insull in 1986, promotes a humanistic approach to the way music is taught, performed and appreciated in judgement-free music improvisation workshops held year-round.

The organization is hosting its week-long workshop dedicated to music improvisation and exploration for all levels of experience July 30 through Aug. 4 called The Art of Improvisation workshop, held at SUNY Fredonia. Music For People will welcome international attendees, professional performing musicians, untrained music lovers and students of music to a week of non-stop spontaneous music making.

Led by expert teachers, the workshops will showcase a variety of world music skills that can be applied to music making to help facilitate musicianship, leadership and musical fluidity.

Recording artist and international workshop facilitator, Mary Knysh, and SUNY Fredonia’s Director of The Improv. Collective, Dr. David Rudge, will be joined by Terry Beck, international choreographer and teacher of Dance Improvisation at SUNY Fredonia. They will lead attendees through an exploration of improvised music and movement. A combination of worldly influence and professional classical training create an expert pairing for supportive music making at each life-changing event.

The Art of Improvisation workshop will also feature:

¯ “Kick-off” concert in Fredonia.

¯ Leading Labs where individuals will get experience leading groups in improvisation activities one-on-one with Mary Knysh.

¯ Series of classes on “process to performance” with David Rudge

¯ Movement and Tai Chi sessions with Terry Beck.

¯ Choice of small group experiences with specialists in jazz, blues, Indian music, chamber music and in the uses of music in therapy and education.

All workshops offer membership, SUNY student and day-rate discounts.

For more information about Music For People’s work and legacy, visit www.musicforpeople.org.

About Music For People

Based on the premise that creativity thrives with encouragement and withers with criticism, Music for People was founded by cellist David Darling and flautist Bonnie Insull in the mid-1980s. The missions of the organization, now in its 31st year, have always been to make improvisation a common element in music education and community music experience, and to make the learning process organic, natural, positive and deep. The organization has brought to fruition increasingly detailed descriptions of its unique exercises and its humanistic philosophy through self-published books (Return to Child), and recordings (Improvising with David Darling, Improvising Chamber Music). Additional related materials have been commercially published (The Darling Conversations, books in press by Lynn Miller and Mary Knysh). College courses that employ MfP materials and embrace MfP philosophies are taught at SUNY Fredonia by David Rudge, at DePauw University by Eric Edberg, at Adelphi University by James Oshinsky and at Pratt Institute by Joelle Danant. More than 100 graduates of MfP’s training programs teach in private studios throughout the USA, Canada and Switzerland, with satellite workshops also hosted in France and Italy.

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