Music from Scratch: Intro to Music Improvisation
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Learn to make music from your hearts and minds with Music Improvisation! Through musical games and free play, we will create music from thin air, using our minds, our bodies, and whatever sound-making devices we have available. Learning music improvisation builds students' listening skills, helps them practice safe social/relational skills, and builds confidence in their ability to make decisions. Let's play together!
Pennsylvania Curriculum Standards
(A=Assembly; W=Workshop; R=Residency)
9.1 Production, Performance and Exhibition of Dance, Music, Theatre and Visual Arts A, W, R
15.4 Learning Through Experience W, R
25.3 Pro-Social Relationships with Adults W, R
25.4 Pro-Social Relationships with Peers W, R
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Art Form(s): Music
Genre: Jewish, Multicultural
Assembly, Workshop, and Residency Offerings
Klezmer Crash Course Program
Watch a group of experienced musicians create music from thin air! Music improvisation - creating something new in the moment from just the information and resources available - is an activity that's shared by nearly every musical tradition and it also is its own tradition! Drawing from the grand improvisational musical traditions such as jazz and beyond, Dan Blacksberg and his group will show off the amazing sounds and possibilities of relating to ourselves and each other that this musical process and history provides. Students will hear sounds they’ve never heard before and think about music in a new way. They will learn about the history of Creative Improvised music through groundbreaking pioneers like the inventor of the Deep Listening method, Pauline Oliveros, the many brilliant thinkers from Black music collective the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and Philly’s own Sun Ra Arkestra. Students at the assembly will also have the chance to make their own spontaneous sounds with the group!
Best for: 3-12
Also available as a Workshop or Residency!
Featuring: Dan Blacksberg's Freilachs Music
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Dan Blacksberg's Freilachs Music delivers delicious klezmer that connects the old world to our world with a Philly twist. Klezmer trombone pioneer Dan Blacksberg weaves together sounds from origins in Eastern Europe, New York, and Philadelphia with all the strands of today’s vibrant klezmer universe. Traditional dance numbers, spiritual nigunim (wordless melodies), and ear-catching originals are delivered with virtuosity that is as soulful as it is stunning. With a focus on the repertoire of Philadelphia’s own tradition and on new compositions - especially those composed by women, this is 21st century klezmer music at its finest!
Dan is one of the most in demand performers and teachers of klezmer music in the world, teaching at institutions like Klezkanada, Yiddish Summer Weimar, and Yiddish New York. In Philadelphia, he is the klezmer musician in residence at Kol Tzedek Synagogue, where he teaches and leads the all-ages (8 to 80!), all levels Simcha. He has led workshops at the Mann Music Center, University of Pennsylvania, and was an adjunct at Temple Univeristy, where he founded the Temple Klezmer Ensemble (Shul U.).
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Joined Musicopia: 2025