Tympanum

Through intense listening and uncanny intuition, David and Jane spontaneously intertwine their melodies and rhythms into cohesive pieces that come alive with magical immediacy. David's soulful cello and Jane's warm acoustic piano tone blend with breathtaking beauty, and their shared sense of timing is exceptional. Both musicians reveal imaginative moods and tone qualities with their instruments---peaceful and playful, dramatic and virtuosic, with moments suspended in time. These improvisations were recorded in two sessions, without any previously composed chord charts or rehearsals. Jane writes: Free improvisation gives me a way to produce and experience direct links between my inner ear, my emotions, my fingers, my outer ear, and my mind, without the interference of my eyes reading another person's music. It renews my spiritual connection with the world of sound. Improvising with another person expands this experience, and challenges me to be awake every second to my partner's intentions, to be open to receiving inspiration in the moment, and to welcome the evolving game of conversing, imitating, and singing as one voice. David Darling is a Grammy Award-winning cellist, composer, and teacher. His most recent recording, Prayer For Compassion, won the Grammy Award in 2010, and his CD, Cello Blue, was nominated for a Grammy in 2001. He is a former member of the Paul Winter Consort and has been touring for over 40 years. He has given concerts in major venues internationally. Darling has collaborated on performances and recordings with many world-famous musicians and performers, including Bobby McFerrin, Spyro Gyra, Peter Kater and R. Carlos Nakai, Ralph Towner, the Bunon tribe of Taiwan, Chungliang Al Huang, Coleman Barks, the dance ensemble Pilobolus, and Peter, Paul and Mary. He has also composed scores and performed music for more than a dozen major motion pictures, including Michael Mann's Heat, and Jean-Luc Godard's Nouvelle Vague. In 1986 he founded Music For People, an internationally recognized organization dedicated to teaching and fostering free improvisation as a means of creative self-expression; he facilitates workshops to help all people experience the joy of music. Jane Buttars' collaboration on Tympanum follows her prior release of Keys to the Inside, a CD of original live solo piano improvisations. She is a versatile musician, innovative educator and scholar who has performed as pianist, harpsichordist, vocalist, and dancer. Her solo and joint concerts often combine instrumental, vocal, and movement improvisation with enthusiastic audience interaction. Dr. Buttars is Coordinator of the Music for People Graduate Program, and has been invited to serve on staff as an improvisation facilitator at their quarterly training seminars. Through Music From the Inside (her own regional program), she provides workshops in music and movement improvisation for self-expression. She is also asked to make interactive presentations to professional piano teacher associations on the joys of teaching improvisation. Classically trained, she studied at Indiana University with Menahem Pressler and in Germany as a Fulbright Scholar. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in keyboard performance. She maintains a studio for private sessions, including distance learning, in Princeton, NJ. She is a former member of the keyboard faculties of Elmhurst College (Illinois) and Northwest Missouri State University. Tym pa num n. 1 the eardrum or middle ear 2 a stretched membrane; a drum or tambourine 3 The ornamental recessed panel enclosed by the cornices of a triangular pediment, or the space between an arch and the lintel of a portal or window.