Infinite Improvisation Podcast

Infinite Improvisation

Why improvising is more than something from nothing, and how creativity and collaboration can improve lives and save the world. Part discussion and part experiment, the show’s hosts American saxophonist Steve Treseler and Canadian poet/musician Lauren Best find the fun in risk-taking, unscripted conversations, and multi-disciplinary perspectives to creative practice. Brought together by a shared belief in transformation through improvisation, Steve and Lauren bring their audience along for the journey, making it up as they go. . . read less
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Episodes

Creativity from Day One: An Interview with Siliana Chiliachka
Jun 4 2023
Creativity from Day One: An Interview with Siliana Chiliachka
Infinite Improvisation Podcast: adventures in music and creativity with Steve Treseler and Lauren Best. Founder of Siliana's Piano Studio, Bulgarian-American pianist Siliana Chiliachka is reimagining music lessons for young children, teaching technique, composition, and improvisation through Music Learning Theory.  In our conversation, we discuss that children are naturally musical and creative, but there is a lack of creativity in early music instruction—and what we can do to change that. We also discuss the principles of Edwin Gordon's Music Learning Theory, how to promote life-long music-making, and the distinction between learning about music vs. understanding music.  Siliana Chiliachka is a dedicated music educator who has performed and taught piano throughout North America, Canada, and Europe. She debuted as a soloist with the Vratsa Philharmonic Orchestra in Bulgaria when she was 10 years old. She is a graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada and holds bachelor's and master's degrees in music. She has received training from renowned artists such as Jerome Lowenthal, Charles Asche, Yuval Yaron, Anne Epperson, and Peter Yazbeck. She is a recipient of numerous scholarships including the UCSB Music Affiliates Quarterly Performance Award, the SB Music club, and an awardee of several competitions and festivals in Bulgaria, Canada, and the U.S. Learn more about Music Moves group classes with Siliana for 4-7 year olds https://www.instagram.com/silianastudio/ https://www.facebook.com/siliana.chiliachka   Get updates and exclusive community content by signing up for our email newsletter at: www.infiniteimprovisation.com/podcast   Subscribe to our YouTube channel   Theme Song: “Cold Hammered” by Steve Treseler
Creativity and Indigenous Music: An Interview with Ed Littlefield
Jan 4 2023
Creativity and Indigenous Music: An Interview with Ed Littlefield
Infinite Improvisation Podcast: adventures in music and creativity with Steve Treseler and Lauren Best.   The first episode of our interview series, a conversation with Ed Littlefield. We discuss Ed's journey studying Native Lingít music alongside jazz, community music making, composing a song for Betty White (first 10 seconds: https://youtu.be/yp0yf5PpqkA), and much more! Ed Littlefield is a freelance percussionist, educator, and composer based out of Seattle, WA. He is Lingít from Sitka, Alaska and has released three albums featuring traditional native melodies, which he also arranged into the jazz idiom with the Native Jazz Quartet. This quartet represented the United States in South America as “Jazz Ambassadors” through the American Music Abroad program. For film he composed a song for the 2009 Disney movie The Proposal for Betty White’s character and played the percussion score and consulted on indigenous music for the 2022 documentary Exposing Muybridge. Ed has played K’alyaan in the world-premiere of Battles of Fire and Water by Dave Hunsaker and written and performed an original musical score for Eurydice by Sara Ruhl for Perseverance Theater in Juneau, Alaska. He has done sound design and composition for the world premieres of Our Voices Will Be Heard by Vera Starbard, and was the composer and cultural advisor for They Don’t Talk Back by Frank Katasse at Native voices at the Autry, La Jolla Playhouse and Perseverance Theater. He also did sound design for Off the Rails by Randy Reinholz at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Sovereignty by Mary Kathryn Nagle at Arena Stage. Most recently he composed the songs for a new play produced by the University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign called The Neverland by Madeline Sayet. Currently he is working on a three-year project to create the first ever Lingít opera. This project will combine traditional contemporary Lingít melodies inside the western opera genre and will also include an all-indigenous cast. Ed is an active educator around the country, facilitating artist residencies for students and teachers to help them learn more about Lingít culture and music and traditional ways of knowing. Contact Ed at edwardlittlefield@hotmail.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel   Get updates and exclusive community content by signing up for our email newsletter at: www.infiniteimprovisation.com/podcast   Executive Producers: Lauren Best and Steve Treseler Producer: Sam Blake Theme Song: “Cold Hammered” by Steve Treseler