About Infinite Improvisation
Misson
To help musicians become fully expressed and connected through creative music
To make creative music experiences accessible and integrated into mainstream music education
To inspire lifelong music-making
Infinite Improvisation provides creative music experiences in a variety of mediums: in-person and virtual workshops, instructional books, digital media, and an online community.
Exploring creative practices allow anyone to channel their skills, experiences, and culture, into an endless flow of musical ideas.
How does one learn improvisation? The only answer is to ask another question: What is stopping us? Spontaneous creation comes from our deepest being. . . so the work of creativity is not a matter of making the material come, but of unblocking the obstacles to its natural flow.”
— Stephen Nachmanovitch, Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art
Everybody improvises their way through every day. And so I do that with music.
— Pauline Oliveros, Founder of Deep Listening
Painting by Christian Pincock
Who Infinite Improvisation Is For
Musicians who don't feel fully expressed playing other people’s music and want to create their own
Musicians interested in exploring improvisation or beginning composition in any form
Musicians who feel isolated in their practice and want to connect and collaborate with like-minded folks
Educators who want to inject creativity into their programs and break down hierarchical models of teaching
Steve Treseler
Founder, Artistic Director
Steve Treseler is a Seattle-based saxophonist, teaching artist, and composer. DownBeat calls his music “beautifully crafted ensemble pieces—whether free, through-composed, or somewhere in between.” His collaborations with renowned trumpeter Ingrid Jensen have been featured in The New York Times, DownBeat, and on NPR’s Jazz Night in America. Steve performs and leads improvisation workshops throughout North America and Europe.
Steve began facilitating community-based improvisation workshops throughout the Pacific Northwest in 2004. He was dissatisfied with the status quo of jazz improvisation pedagogy, often front-loaded with theory and technical exercises that overwhelm students. Steve instead offers approaches that are non-intimidating, creative, and effective at building both skills and community. The material draws from an eclectic range of sources, including the jazz tradition, improvised theater games, experimental music, and beyond.
Music programs around the world use Treseler’s instructional books and digital courses. Steve has presented clinics at Berklee College of Music, New England Conservatory, Jazz Education Network, Più Piano in Germany, California Jazz Conservatory, D’Addario Woodwinds in NYC, and the Pacific Music Institute in Honolulu.
Treseler founded Infinite Improvisation in 2020 in conjunction with the release of digital courses to amply the reach of live workshops and support remote learning during the worldwide pandemic.
Steve is a Conn-Selmer Endorsing Artist.
Photo by Ziggy Spiz
Lauren Best
Podcast Producer, Artist Facilitator
Lauren Best lives where the Pottawotami River meets Georgian Bay, on the territory of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (now known as Owen Sound, Ontario). She is an interdisciplinary creative with a multifaceted community arts practice that interweaves with her work as a poet, musician, and composer/creator. Her latest project, the Infinite Improvisation Podcast (2022), is a collaboration with Seattle-based saxophonist Steve Treseler. Lauren was selected for the inaugural Rural Creatives Springboard (2022), a collaboration between Artscape Launchpad and the Canadian Centre for Rural Creativity.
Lauren left her small Ontario town as a young keyboard-playing singer-songwriter and returned to become Poet Laureate Emeritus (Owen Sound, 2017-2019). Her music has been heard coast to coast since her debut album release in 2011, including collaborations ranging from electro-pop bands, to experimental improvised choral music, to interactive theatre and film.
Lauren has developed a thriving professional arts practice through engaging communities as a facilitator, artist-educator, creative/music consultant, instrumental and voice coach, musical and choral director, and program designer. She has been nurtured to be a creative innovator by formal mentorship from professional artists and community arts advocates including musicians, playwrights, directors, and songwriters. Lauren completed the Artist-Educator Professional Training Program at the Royal Conservatory of Music with the designations of Mentor/Lead Artist (2013), and went on to become RCM faculty. Her work included curriculum development and teacher training mentorship for a variety of organizations, including RCM and the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest Hospital.