Improvisation was once a part of every musician’s training. This course is for musicians with curiosity and willingness to explore ideas inside and outside the box.

Together we will make music of here and now, embracing imperfections and impermanence. This course is immersive in nature and process-driven. Participants will learn by exploring music in real-time, in a space that’s free of preconceived ideas and expectations.

Engage in improvisation exercises/game playing as starting points. New games will be invented in the process. Share your feedback and join in discussions about the improvisation, as well as other areas of musical activities and the connections with other art forms.

All participants will improvise numerous pieces in front of and with the others in the course. The music can be documented if desired.

Course Schedule:

Session 1: 23rd September 7:00 – 8:30 PM (Organ Room)
Session 2: 30th September 7:00 – 8:30 PM (Organ Room)
Session 3: 14th October 7:00 – 8:30 PM (Organ Room)
Session 4: 21st October 7:00 – 8:30 PM (Organ Room)
Session 5: 4th November 7:00 – 8:30 PM (Organ Room)
Session 6: 11th November 7:00 – 8:30 PM (Organ Room)

No course sessions on the 28th October (RIAM closed for public holiday)

Learning Outcomes
As a result, by the end of the course and having participated fully, participants will have had direct experience that helps them gain;

Listening skills - the most important skill as a musician. Both deep listening and critical listening will be explored.
Communication skills
Confidence
Positive attitude towards mistakes - in improv, every mistake is an opportunity for new discovery
Higher harmonic knowledge and rhythmic awareness
Composition skills - ability to create a piece of music instantly from anything as an inspiration
Practice/problem-solving skills
Courage to take risks, to trust intuition, to be spontaneous
Imagination for new ideas
Individual thinking and expressing it in music
Technical fluency
Higher musicianship in general as a result

Tutors
Izumi Kimura

Pianist Izumi Kimura has performed extensively throughout the country and abroad since moving to Ireland from Japan in 1995. She has worked with some of the leading performers and ensembles from both disciplines of classical, jazz and improvised music. Her main works in the past decade are contemporary music across genres and improvisation.
Izumi has worked in various formats with institutions, ensembles and small groups, including RTE Symphony Orchestra, RTE Concert Orchestra, Crash Ensemble, Michael d’Arcy, Mia Cooper, Ken Edge, Benjamin Dwyer, Bill Dowdall, Paul Roe, Cora Venus Lunny, Andreea Banciu, Elizabeth Hilliard and many more from the world of classical / contemporary classical music, and with jazz and improvising musicians including Barry Guy, Gerry Hemingway, Tommy Halferty, Ronan Guilfoyle, Michael Buckley, Joe O'Callaghan, Oki Itaru, Dominique Pifarély, Benoît Delbecq, Stéphane Payen, Sarah Buechi, Lina Andonovska, Mathew Jacobson, Nick Roth, Colm O’Hara, and more. She has also collaborated with artists and sound artists including Anthony Kelly, David Stalling and Jaki Irvine.

Improviser
Improvisation being her life-work, she has been involved and developing both solo and chamber group works. Her latest projects are duo with Cora Venus Lunny, duos and trio with Gerry Hemingway and Barry Guy, and quartet with Lina Andonovska, Stéphane Payen, and Mathew Jacobson.
She curated and performed three improvised chamber music concerts as a part of Chamber Series 2022 in National Concert Hall in May 2022, in which she invited guests Cora Venus Lunny, Anthony Kelly, Gerry Hemingway, Lina Andonovska and Dominique Pifarély.

Interpreter of New Music
The composers she worked with include Gerald Barry, John Buckley, Ronan Guilfoyle, Kevin O’Connell, Benjamin Dwyer, Ian Wilson, Greg Caffrey, Fergus Johnston, David Bremner. She has performed at many festivals in Ireland and abroad including RTE Living Music Festival, Boyle Arts Festival, Dublin Dance Festival, Dublin Fringe Festival, Bray Jazz Festival, Galway Jazz Festival, Engage Bandon Arts Festival, Kilkenny Arts Festival, SPECTRUM festival, Music Current Festival, Finding a Voice, Ghent Street Festival of New Music in Belgium, Music 21’s ‘Brazil Now’, 'Artes Da Irlanda' in Sao Paolo, Brazil, Creative Connexions in Sitges, Spain, Ad Libitum Festival in Warsaw, and Azores Festival.