Jostein Gundersen: "Empowerment through exploration" (keynote ORDA-2019 Teachers' Conference)

ORDA-2019 - Teachers' Conference "Approaching Improvisation"
Conservatorium van Amsterdam, 26 October 2019
Coordination and video: Sarah Jeffery #teamrecorder @sarahblokfluit
Opening and keynote lecture
Empowerment through exploration
Improvisation in performance and education
Jostein Gundersen ­­- The Grieg Academy, University of Bergen (Norway)
What do we feel when we are invited to improvise?
Playful, creative, empowered?
Frightened, stressed, embarrassed?
I have gone through all of these emotions and many others in the context of improvisation. In this keynote, I would like to share some of my experience, emphasizing (hopefully) the empowering potential of improvisation in performance and in education. I will propose a matrix of possible entry points into playful exploration of musical parameters, and give some examples of how early music might offer strategies for developing an improvisational practice which is not so far away as we sometimes think.