SERIOUS PLAY: GROUP IMPROVISATION WORKSHOP WITH DAN BLACKSBERG

Calling all adventurous musicians! Would you like to make improvised music in a focused and supportive setting, sharpen your skills, and plug into a community of like-minded players? If so, join acclaimed trombonist and composer Dan Blacksberg in a new round of classes in creative music, starting this October.

Learning by playing, we will immerse ourselves in the principles, wisdom, and dazzling variety of the free music tradition and grapple with performance techniques and methods of spontaneous group organization that influential musicians have employed to create this music in creative communities all around the world, including here in Philadelphia.

Class sessions will feature some historical and aesthetic commentary from Dan, but will be centered primarily on developing musicianship through repeated cycles of playing, reflection, and observation. At the end of this series, members of the class will show off their new skills in public concerts organized in collaboration with the People’s Music Supply.

This class welcomes beginning and experienced improvisors alike and is open to all instruments. We ask that electronic musicians bring instruments that can be played in an ensemble setting and are quick to set up.

How much does it cost?

$35 a session ( ¼ of Dan’s normal hourly rate), or $120 for 4 sessions ($190 for 7) and the end of winter concert.

If you are an artist in need, inquire by email peoplesmusicsupply@gmail.org for a possible price reduction waiver.

About the Instructor
Dan Blacksberg is a leading voice in Philadelphia's music community and a living master of klezmer trombone. Through performance, composition, and improvisation, he creates new territories to explore inside and across genres, forging new pathways between tradition and innovation. As a teacher and community music leader, he builds up all generations of musicians to become empowered and joyous rabble-rousers. Dan has worked with many masters in both experimental music and klezmer music, including Anthony Braxton, George Lewis, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Joe Morris, Joe Maneri, Miya Masaoka, Elaine Hoffman Watts, Frank London, Theodore Bikel, and many more.