Lessons in Extreme Musical Honesty

My guest today is Pianist, Improviser, and Composer, Professor Noam Sivan! He is Professor of Piano Improvisation at the HMDK Stuttgart, and we will talk about his remarkable journey, his method to his improvisational craft, his new exciting Master’s degree programme in classical piano improvisation that he has created, and much more!

0:35 What’s your musical background? 1:21 Did you naturally improvise as a child? 1:56 Mother’s influence on creativity 3:25 Tell me about your formal music training in university 4:10 The influence of formal composition study in your undergraduate studies 6:16 Examples of apply a compositional technique in different musical languages 8:26 Did you face any pressure to become a modernist composer 10:00 What was your dream, to be a composer or performing pianist? 13:00 Masters degree 15:27 Studying with Carl Schachter 16:39 An example of Carl Schacter’s lessons in improvisation 17:42 What did your professors and peers think of improvisation during your student years? 20:25 Improvising cadenzas 21:06 Meeting Robert Levin 21:31 What did Robert Levin say about your improvising at the time? 23:17 What were the technical things that you worked on to take your improvisation to the next level? 26:30 What is your operating system behind your method of improvisation? 28:18 How did you choose the notes for your right hand improvisation? 30:03 How do you make sure your right hand is not creating contrapuntal mistakes when improvising? 32:55 What’s a good way to learn figured bass? 34:35 Do you need to study modern harmony to do what you are doing? 37:24 Studying with Milton Babbitt 40:34 Was the culture at Juilliard supportive of improvisation in Classical music? 41:24 Were the students you taught at the time completely new to classical improvisation? 42:33 What did Milton Babbitt think of improvisation and what you were doing? 43:37 Anecdotes of responses to your improvisations and classes in the early days 45:33 Did you receive negative feedback to improvisation? 48:17 Does being a composer and improviser give you an additional insight into interpretation of repertoire 50:03 Do you any comment on academic or competition style interpretations of repertoire? 52:47 When you have change your system of improvisation to accomodate more modern or contemporary styles of improvisation? 54:34 Do you still maintain the consonance/dissonance framework in a contemporary setting? 56:52 What is anchoring your contemporary improvisations, is it keys or the progression? 58:00 Are you thinking of intervals? 58:19 What tips can you give to more traditional improvisers to broaden their tonal palette into modern music? 1:01:43 Vincent Persichetti’s 20th Century Harmony textbook 1:03:44 How does a music educator grade student musical improvisations? 1:08:43 Professor Sivan’s new Masters degree programme on classical piano improvisation 1:11:19 How’s the reception to the Masters programme? 1:13:07 Do you require incoming students to have a background in improvisation? 1:14:38 How has the culture around classical improvisation now changed compared to when you began? 1:17:49 Professor’s Sivan album “Ambiro’s Journey” 1:18:48 What’s a good ratio for a modern performer’s recital pieces for improvised music, original compositions and traditional repertoire? 1:21:30 A memorable experience from your solo improvised piano recitals 1:24:21 Up to this point, what has been your proudest musical moment? 1:27:11 How are you different as an improviser today vs 10 years ago and how do you see yourself grow in the next 10 years? 1:31:31 Wrapping Up