This discussion is part of a weeklong residency featuring George Lewis, the Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music at Columbia University, whose scholarly work centers on the implications of improvisation as a practice of social transformation.

Lewis's scholarly work centers on the implications of improvisation as a practice of social transformation. It proceeds from the understanding that many musical improvisers have represented their sounds and practices as addressing larger questions of identity and social organization, as well as creating politically inflected, critically imbued aesthetic spaces.  Following a 1964 suggestion by sociologist Alfred Schutz that “a study of the social relationships connected with the musical process may lead to some insights valid for many other forms of social intercourse,” Lewis's internationally presented series of dialogues with philosopher Arnold I. Davidson on "Improvisation as a Way of Life" have been organized around the idea that the practice of improvisation is not at all limited to the artistic domain, but is a ubiquitous practice of everyday life, a primary method of exchange in any interaction.

Panel members for this discussion will include Aaron Johnson (Music, University of Pittsburgh), Roger Dannenberg (Computer Science, Art, and Music at Carnegie Mellon University), Ali Momeni, (Art, CMU), Eric Moe (Music, Pitt), Mathew Rosenblum (Music, Pitt), and Kathy Blee, (Sociology, Pitt).

This event is also sponsored by the Department of Music. For more information, contact Andrew Weintraub at anwein@pitt.edu To see the full series of events, click here.