Improvisation Revival

"An Improvisation Revival Could Profoundly Influence How Classical Music Is Taught And Performed." - Wall Street Journal

"Bringing it back won’t be easy, though. There’s no Suzuki method for improvisation. Few contemporary classical performers master the art, let alone try to teach it." Violinist and composer Mark O’Connor, who improvised a two-minute solo passage while performing one of his own compositions at Carnegie Hall last month, says performers have to relearn how to be
creative, in part because their training places so much emphasis on the flawless execution of another person’s creation.

"One of the reasons we don’t see more improvisation in the academic setting is because at some point in our education system, the creative composers were separated from the virtuosic performers. Some of that is starting to be broken down now," says Mr. O’Connor, who learned to improvise by studying jazz and folk music and now coaches young musicians at UCLA, Harvard and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.