Good morning gang,

Happy Wednesday! Mike, mike, mike, mike....🐫

Over the last decade I've been keenly invested in exploring hybrid musicianship — equipping musicians with multiple modalities of creative output.

Through this work, I've opened up a great deal of creative freedom for myself which has lead to creative energy. I'm excited to share just a bit about this path with y'all today, and as always would welcome feedback and dialogue. Thanks to so many of you who have offered positive thoughts and kind words of support for our 5-minute creative check-ins here at Momentum!

Let’s move the needle!

BACKGROUND

Way back in 2005, I co-founded Nief-Norf, primarily as an ensemble collective that allowed me to collaborate with friends. It also allowed us to program and present "bucket list" projects which were almost exclusively notated repertoire standards. There was a long list of pieces to work through, and it was really exciting to finally get an opportunity to experience these compositions outside of the classroom and in real time, via rehearsals and performances.

If we jump ahead to the NN Summer Festival forming in 2011 and continuing on now for well over a decade, one of the most popular things we began to offer was our Composer-Performer track. I designed this track after reading the College Music Society's manifesto entitled:

To overly simplify the findings for our purposes today, the task force argues that we should be training musicians to be Composer-Performer-Improvisers.

I tell my students all the time that in the visual arts (and others), students step to the plate with creativity first. If you're a painter, you begin with a blank canvas and some paint. Photography...camera and a world full of subjects. Poetry, graphic design, sculpture — a clean slate and your tools.

But for so many in music, this is not the kind of creativity we experience. 🙅‍♂️

In my experience, most students spend years being handed notes and rhythms to learn. If we're lucky they begin interpreting these compositions, which can be a very creative act to be clear, but in many cases the weight of the amount of repertoire causes a "churn and burn" cycle.

This is oversimplified simply due to the space of this writing. And I'm not suggesting that the exploration and collaboration that occurs when learning repertoire is a negative experience or not of significant musical value in training students.

However, I decided to augment those experiences for students years ago in hopes of bringing their creativity and musical voices more fully into their work and output. Some of those initiatives have included:

• I've implemented improvising into my personal practice sequence daily - allowing myself time to improvise and compose, specifically at the drumset.
• In collaboration with my colleague Jordan Munson, we built a music technology performance track, where fellows can attend NNSF using their laptop as their primary instrument. This was the first of its kind, at least that we were aware of...
• We've implemented Improvisation courses and sessions into many of our NN programs including a week of improvising and composing with technology last summer with Joo Won Park.
• I've programmed dozens of "open score" pieces in the last 5-8 years including Nief-Norf's annual Call for Scores topic last year, many of which have open compositional parameters and involve more decision making and composed improvisation by the performers.
• In 2019, the University of Tennessee Percussion Ensemble performed a completely improvised concert with guest artist Michael Gould, which is still mentioned to me frequently by former students as a memorable and transformative experience.
• The Composer-Performer track at NNSF I mentioned above has become our most popular and competitively accepted track for our program.
• The students in the University of Tennessee Percussion Studies program have been composing works both for themselves and in collaboration with their peers which has been rewarding and fulfilling to observe.

I could go on, but this has been a rewarding and energizing process for the community of creatives I work in and for me, feels like 100% the right direction.

MOTION = MOMENTUM (YOUR CTA)

I'm excited to continue down this path and would love to hear how this resonates with you.

Consider — how do I identify as a musician?

In my experience, there is a strong wall for most that doesn't allow fluid movement between musical roles, and I've been working to give my community the courage to challenge those ideas.

If you're ready to dive in and secure your footing in multiple musical modalities, Nief-Norf just launched the CPI Digital Summit: Percussion Edition. This cohort of musicians will come together via our Circle community and collaborate on composing, performing, and improvisation. Each fellow with both perform the premiere of a work written uniquely for them + have their own newly composed work premiered by a colleague. There will also be improvisation collaborations, professional development sessions, guest talks, and access to the community through the process for support and accountability. Applications close December 1st, so hit me up with questions or interest!

As always, I thoroughly appreciate you reading and sharing your ideas with this community!

Best wishes,

Andy 🆎

RECENT FAVORITE THINGS

1. I really enjoyed listening to Third Coast Percussion's recent album Between Breaths and especially enjoyed Missy Mazoli's new piece Millennium Canticles. Go check it out and show them support!
2. I've been following the F1 season as it comes to a close and am really excited to check out the upcoming Las Vegas Grand Prix. I knew nothing about F1 prior to watching the Netflix show Drive to Survive, and have really enjoyed casually watching. The street circuit, the Vegas lights, and this being 100% new to everyone should make for an interesting race this weekend. 🏎️

Did you receive this via a forward from a friend? I'd love to have you in the community!

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