The Creative Music Studio: A Symposium with Karl Berger, moderator
During the 1970s and 1980s, the Woodstock-based Creative Music Studio was widely considered as the premier center for the study of contemporary creative music. Founded in 1971 by Karl Berger, Ingrid Sertso and Ornette Coleman, CMS brought together leading innovators in the jazz and world music communities. Unprecedented in its range and diversity, CMS was an acknowledged phenomenon in the international music world, providing participants with the rare opportunity to interact personally with the musical giants of improvisation and musical thought on a daily basis. Hundreds of live concerts were recorded, many heralded as landmark performances. Thousands of workshops, master classes, concerts and colloquia inspired a generation of musicians who took with them the ideas, concepts and practices developed at CMS.
Throughout this day-long symposium, a series of panels, moderated by Berger, Howard Mandel, and Ben Young, will feature CMS musicians such as Oliver Lake, Adam Rudolph, Sylvain Leroux, Don Davis, Ingrid Sertso, Rob Saffer, Ilene Marder, James Emery, Peter Apfelbaum, Marilyn Crispell, Steve Gorn, and Pauline Oliveros. The panels will explore the history of CMS, assessing the impact of the CMS experience on musical developments and individual careers, as well as presenting CMS philosophies and practices, including “Music Universe"—the concept CMS pioneered that adopts an inclusive, non-stylistic focus on the common ground of the world's musical expressions, exploring and expanding multiple languages of contemporary improvised music; and “Music Mind"—finding ways to deepen the experience of playing and listening to music, focusing on attention, expression and communication.
CMF is now working with the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University for the future development and maintenance of the CMS Archive Project, a massive undertaking aimed at the preservation of the large collection of CMS live recordings created between 1972 and 1986, which featured some of the most outstanding and ground-breaking composers/performers in World Jazz, World Music, and New Music.
The Project will also include an Oral History component, and this full-day colloquium will capture many oral histories concerning the Creative Music Studio years and the variegated impact of those experiences on the musical outlook of its participants and the larger world of music and culture.
Saturday, April 16, 2011, 9:30 am to 5:30 pm
301 Philosophy Hall, Columbia University Morningside Campus
Free and open to the public
About Karl Berger
Founder and director of the Creative Music Foundation, Inc., and the Creative Music Studio, Karl Berger holds a PhD in Music Aesthetics from the University of Heidelberg. Dr. Berger is a six time winner of the Downbeat Critics Poll as a jazz soloist, recipient of commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Westdeutsche Rundfunk, Norddeutsche Rundfunk, Radio France, RAI Italy, and Südwestfunk; he received the SWF-Prize in 1994). Professor of Composition, Artist- in- Residence at universities, schools and festivals worldwide,
He has recorded and performed with Don Cherry, Lee Konitz, John McLaughlin, Gunther Schuller, the Mingus Epitaph Orchestra, Dave Brubeck, Ingrid Sertso, Dave Holland, Ed Blackwell, Ray Anderson, Carlos Ward, Pharoah Sanders, Blood Ulmer, Hozan Yamamoto and many others at festivals and concerts in the US, Canada, Europe, Africa, India, Phillippines, Japan, Mexico and Brazil, and he has served as arranger for recordings by Natalie Merchant, Buckethead, Bootsy Collins, The Swans, Sly + Robbie, Angelique Kidjo, and many others.
During the 1970s and 1980s, the Woodstock-based Creative Music Studio was widely considered as the premier center for the study of contemporary creative music. Founded in 1971 by Karl Berger, Ingrid Sertso and Ornette Coleman, CMS brought together leading innovators in the jazz and world music communities. Unprecedented in its range and diversity, CMS was an acknowledged phenomenon in the international music world, providing participants with the rare opportunity to interact personally with the musical giants of improvisation and musical thought on a daily basis. Hundreds of live concerts were recorded, many heralded as landmark performances. Thousands of workshops, master classes, concerts and colloquia inspired a generation of musicians who took with them the ideas, concepts and practices developed at CMS.
Throughout this day-long symposium, a series of panels, moderated by Berger, Howard Mandel, and Ben Young, will feature CMS musicians such as Oliver Lake, Adam Rudolph, Sylvain Leroux, Don Davis, Ingrid Sertso, Rob Saffer, Ilene Marder, James Emery, Peter Apfelbaum, Marilyn Crispell, Steve Gorn, and Pauline Oliveros. The panels will explore the history of CMS, assessing the impact of the CMS experience on musical developments and individual careers, as well as presenting CMS philosophies and practices, including “Music Universe"—the concept CMS pioneered that adopts an inclusive, non-stylistic focus on the common ground of the world's musical expressions, exploring and expanding multiple languages of contemporary improvised music; and “Music Mind"—finding ways to deepen the experience of playing and listening to music, focusing on attention, expression and communication.
CMF is now working with the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University for the future development and maintenance of the CMS Archive Project, a massive undertaking aimed at the preservation of the large collection of CMS live recordings created between 1972 and 1986, which featured some of the most outstanding and ground-breaking composers/performers in World Jazz, World Music, and New Music.
The Project will also include an Oral History component, and this full-day colloquium will capture many oral histories concerning the Creative Music Studio years and the variegated impact of those experiences on the musical outlook of its participants and the larger world of music and culture.
Saturday, April 16, 2011, 9:30 am to 5:30 pm
301 Philosophy Hall, Columbia University Morningside Campus
Free and open to the public
About Karl Berger
Founder and director of the Creative Music Foundation, Inc., and the Creative Music Studio, Karl Berger holds a PhD in Music Aesthetics from the University of Heidelberg. Dr. Berger is a six time winner of the Downbeat Critics Poll as a jazz soloist, recipient of commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Westdeutsche Rundfunk, Norddeutsche Rundfunk, Radio France, RAI Italy, and Südwestfunk; he received the SWF-Prize in 1994). Professor of Composition, Artist- in- Residence at universities, schools and festivals worldwide,
He has recorded and performed with Don Cherry, Lee Konitz, John McLaughlin, Gunther Schuller, the Mingus Epitaph Orchestra, Dave Brubeck, Ingrid Sertso, Dave Holland, Ed Blackwell, Ray Anderson, Carlos Ward, Pharoah Sanders, Blood Ulmer, Hozan Yamamoto and many others at festivals and concerts in the US, Canada, Europe, Africa, India, Phillippines, Japan, Mexico and Brazil, and he has served as arranger for recordings by Natalie Merchant, Buckethead, Bootsy Collins, The Swans, Sly + Robbie, Angelique Kidjo, and many others.
