On this weblog I reflect on my research into improvisation and conversation, both as a lector at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague and in my other activities; I investigate how improvisational and conversational forms and techniques contribute to the development of artistry.


The Conference Session - A play in seven stages

on April 3, 2009

Place: Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Time: Saturday 28 February 2009 16.00-18.00.
Subject: Preparing session with 21 moderators of the Reflective Conservatoire.
Introduction and hand out: Bart van Rosmalen (Royal Conservatoire The Hague

Goal: sharing knowledge, optimize knowledge circulation
Approach: seeing the session as a play […]


30 minutes conversation

on December 11, 2008

There was only 30 minutes to have an interactive discussion with 70 participants! They where sitting in theatre format with me, the moderator, standing in the front. I asked all of them to leave their chairs and join me standing on stage. I put them into small groups of four. As if standing in a […]


Reflective Conservatoire Conference: Building Connections, February 28-March 3 2009

on October 20, 2008

 The first draft of the programme for this Conference, which I will direct next year, is now prepared. It’s taking shape, it’s time to cut the clothes from the raw materials. I’m excited to be reaching the stage of working to engineer many and diverse connections through the days. We have built in longer breaks […]


Making it work: day to day dialogue in Connecting Conversations

on October 20, 2008

Connecting Conversations has been taking root as a driving force in my work, a central focus in what I am trying to embody, a focus of my curiosity. In this text, I reflect on  particular places where I have been working at doing the connecting conversations, even if I don’t yet manage to find the relevant […]


Why am I having singing lessons?

on July 14, 2008

In the end this was an intuitive decision, something I just knew was right at the time, without really knowing why. I felt it in my bones! There are several reasons though, of which I am now aware:

I love singing, I love the physical feeling of it, so I want to be able to do […]


Association of European Conservatoires (AEC) Congress

on July 14, 2008

[ November 6, 2008 to November 8, 2008. ] I will be presenting two things at the AEC Congress in Aarhus, Denmark: my own research about one-to-one tuition, and the work of the Polifonia Research Group. As part of this second presentation we will be introducing and promoting a series of three international professional development workshops for conservatoire teachers. The challenge will be to […]


Polifonia Research Group

on July 14, 2008

[ October 2, 2008 to October 3, 2008. ] This will be the 2nd meeting of this AEC working group which I chair.

October 2-3, Stockholm, Sweden


Sensuous Knowledge Conference

on July 14, 2008

[ September 24, 2008 to September 27, 2008. ] Together with Bart van Rosmalen, I will be presenting a paper at this conference, based on our work on improvisation and conversation. The focus will be on aspects of “quality” in this research. We want to use the opportunity to deepen our own work, and particularly to engage with practitioners from the world of visual […]


Improvisation live lab

on July 14, 2008

[ September 9, 2008 to September 11, 2008. ] “Improvisation opens the senses.” - Healthcare professional

For three days in September I spent time with a group of actors, musicians, music therapists and health care workers, exploring the potential for collaborating through improvisation. We explored three particular themes: beginnings and engagement, listening, and touch. This is not the kind of thing that I have done […]


Mentoring development workshops

on July 14, 2008

[ July 15, 2008; July 28, 2008; September 17, 2008; ] These workshops are for staff at the Guildhall School who will be leading mentoring circles of first year undergraduate music students as part of a new compulsory course: Performance Matters. They are part of a development programme which will run through the academic year 08/09, bringing the staff group of mentors together to build mentoring […]