Music As Cultural Diplomacy: Using Improvisation As a Creative Tool

Musical improvisation is a complex form of creative human expression. In this book, Sabina Rakcheyeva explores the logical outcomes of performance, relating them to existing theories and expanding those theories with new findings. Rakcheyeva begins with an examination of the attributes of musical improvisation, how it is practised, its logic, the creativity of the process and the role of the audience in performance. The book's second half is devoted to a description of a performance-based research project involving the author, a violinist, and members of her ensemble. A self-referent endeavour involving cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary analyses, investigates aspects of improvisation in recent musical practice, juxtaposing this onto the author's own performance experience and elaborating, in particular, on how improvisation encapsulates processes of imagination, creation, and collaboration among musicians from different music backgrounds. Taking the music performance to a next stage, the author explores the ways of how musical collaboration as a tool of public engagement can contribute to promoting understanding and preventing and resolving conflict, in a search of methodology for improving the effectiveness of current practices.

Sabina Rakcheyeva earned her Master’s from The Juilliard School in New York, USA, and her PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. As a professional violinist, she has performed in more than 50 countries around the world and represented her native Azerbaijan in a number of events. Interested in cross-cultural collaboration, Sabina is passionate about fusion of Eastern and Western music and has performed her improvisations on traditional Azerbaijani Mugham to critical acclaim. In addition to being a member of the European Cultural Parliament, she serves on the Advisory Board of the European Azerbaijan Society, as well as consulting and leading cultural diplomacy projects for Arts Global.