THE CREATIVE MUSIC FOUNDATION facilitates the experience and expression of our deep connection with the transforming, liberating and healing energies of music, a universal language that we all share and is as essential to our humanity as the air we breathe. CMF does this by providing creative space where musicians from different backgrounds and traditions explore together, share and pass on their most personal musical expression and understanding, emphasizing keen awareness, focused practice, listening and communication. CMF pursues its mission through workshops, residencies, coaching, concert performances, recordings and archival projects in the USA and around the world.
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THE CREATIVE MUSIC FOUNDATION facilitates the experience and expression of our deep connection with the transforming, liberating and healing energies of music, a universal language that we all share and is as essential to our humanity as the air we breathe. CMF does this by providing creative space where musicians from different backgrounds and traditions explore together, share and pass on their most personal musical expression and understanding, emphasizing keen awareness, focused practice, listening and communication. CMF pursues its mission through workshops, residencies, coaching, concert performances, recordings and archival projects in the USA and around the world.
The Creative Music Foundation was founded in 1971 by musicians Karl Berger, Ingrid Sertso and Ornette Coleman. Its initial advisory board, comprised of legends from all aspects of music, the arts and philosophy, included composer John Cage, conductor/musician Gil Evans, philosopher/educator Buckminster Fuller, composer George Russell, and composer/conductor Gunther Schuller. Their goal was to establish a nonprofit organization focused on improvisation and musical cross-pollination that complemented musicians’ academic studies, a place where music as a universal language could be explored and expanded.
For most of its 44 years, CMF's main program was the Creative Music Studio, a physical location in Woodstock, NY where musicians from all over the world lived, played, interacted with each other and created a body of music broad and deep. Based on a 45-acre campus with multiple residences, workshop rooms and performance halls, hundreds of Guiding Artists, including several MacArthur ‘Genius’ Fellow Award winners (George Lewis, John Zorn,, Cecil Taylor, Charlie Haden) lived, played and shared musical wisdom with thousands of participants. Over 400 concerts were recorded and are currently being digitized as part of the CMS Archive Project. The CMS Archive is being housed at Columbia University’s Library and the best pieces are being included in the CD compilations mentioned above. Recent MacArthur Fellow Vijay Iyer taught a CMS workshop just two days after receiving his award!
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