Stephen Nachmanovitch
performs and teaches internationally as an improvisational violinist,
and at the intersections of music, dance, theater, and multimedia arts.
He is the author of Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art (Penguin, 1990). Born
in 1950, he studied at Harvard and the University of California, where
he earned a Ph.D. in the History of Consciousness for an exploration
of William Blake. His mentor was the anthropologist and philosopher
Gregory Bateson. He has taught and lectured widely in the United States
and abroad on creativity and the spiritual underpinnings of art. In
the 1970’s he was a pioneer in free improvisation on violin, viola and
electric violin. He has presented master classes and workshops at many
conservatories and universities, and has had numerous appearances on
radio, television, and at music and theater festivals. He has
collaborated with other artists in media including music, dance,
theater, and film, and has developed programs melding art, music,
literature, and computer technology. He has published articles in a
variety of fields since 1966, and has created computer software
including The World Music Menu and Visual Music Tone Painter. He lives with his wife and two sons in Charlottesville, Virginia.
He is currently performing,
recording, teaching, writing, and obsessed with the improvisational
possibilities of the viola d'amore and the tenor violin.
