On Thursday, 1 February, Univ will hold a lively, interactive workshop with renowned composer and creativity expert Bruce Adolphe. Ideal for anyone, (non-musicians and musicians alike), who has ever wanted to expand their imagination and bring more creativity into their lives.

In the words of Bruce Adolphe: “How would Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, and Brahms order falafel to take away if they spoke as they composed? What does a cadenza have to do with the Snooze option on your alarm? These are some of the burning questions we will be exploring in “The Mind’s Ear: Musical Imagination” workshop.

Held between 1.45- 3.00pm in the Hall, this workshop draws on the fun, challenging, and unconventional exercises for exploring our musical imaginations that he developed over many years with musicians of all levels, and on research on creative visions in the hypnagogic state. The workshop will include discussions about ideas in his two books: The Mind’s Ear: Exercises to Improve the Musical Imagination for Performers, Composers, and Listeners (3rd edition, 2021, Oxford University Press) and Visions and Decisions: Imagination and Technique in Music Composition (Cambridge University Press, 2023), including topics such as “The Physicality of Ideas”, “The Feeling of Meaning: Ideas and Emotion”  and “The Lure of the Inexplicable””.

Known to millions of American music lovers for his radio program/podcast Piano Puzzlers, a weekly broadcast since 2002, Bruce Adolphe is a composer, author, innovative educator, and resident lecturer of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York since 1992.

Don’t miss the Concert in Hall on Saturday 3 February at 7.30pm, featuring music from the Chapel Choir, Martlet Voices and Richard Tunnicliffe on cello. The programme includes a new commission by Bruce Adolphe, Lot’s Wives and poetry by Pireeni Sundaralingam.

Any enquiries to Pireeni.Sundaralingam@ox.ac.uk

Published: 29 January 2024

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