the KlezmerShack

What is Winter Edition? It is a path-breaking institute for the study of music improvisation with an interdisciplinary and intercultural approach. Teachers and students from around the world join in an open, evolving exploration of the connections between improvisation, musical tradition, communication, cognition, the voice, the body and awareness. Led by Alan Bern and an outstanding international faculty, Winter Edition is a learning community: a place for taking new risks, acquiring new skills and information and for making new personal and professional relationships. In past years, Winter Edition has focused on how to discover musical intentions and communicate them in various group improvisations settings. In 2011 it takes a new turn in order to complement the work on musical impulses, awareness and communication with intensive work on practical skills in rhythm, harmony and melody. The theme of Winter Edition 2011 is Techné: Craft & Creativity. In ancient Greek, techné meant multi-faceted craftsmanship, the kind of knowledge necessary to make something, as opposed to purely theoretical knowledge. For many musicians today, though, "technique" (deriving from techné) means only physical mastery of their instrument. This narrowed conception reflects the loss of many skills that belong to musical mastery, such as being able to hear and freely create harmonic, melodic and rhythmic material in real time. The purpose is not to return to any particular musical language, but to increase the range and freedom of musical expression. The workshops will be led by a great team of artists and teachers with a lot of experience and many approaches to the work of integrating creativity and craft. The various workshops that make up Winter Edition are for instrumentalists and vocalists, from advanced students to professionals, who want to develop their creativity through an intensive exploration of improvisation, awareness, and deepening fundamental musical skills. For further info: winteredition.eu