Ad Hoc: Why Improvisation Matters

What’s This Podcast
About?

Ad Hoc is a podcast about improvisation: in music, in other art forms, and in the lives and work of professionals of all stripes. It was started by us here at Ars Nova Workshop, a jazz/creative music presenter in Philadelphia. We’ve built decades-long relationships and ongoing conversations with the greatest musical minds—MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellows, Doris Duke and Pulitzer Prize award winners—who are all world-class innovators. And we’ve come to understand that improvisation is more than just a fortunate talent for jazz musicians: it informs the very world each of those musicians inhabits.  Through conversations with these world-renowned musicians and a host of others, we explore how improvisation affects their work, their creative lives, even their relationships. We also see how improvisation often leads to roads outside of music: visual art, movement, all the way to scientific study or martial arts. We use conversations with these world-class musicians as a launching point for considering the many facets of the phenomenon of improvisation: its history, development, cultural status, applications, and the science behind it and that it makes possible. Ad Hoc is produced by Ars Nova Workshop in partnership with Rowhome Productions. 

Podcast Copyright

© 2024 Ad Hoc: Why Improvisation Matters