Ed Sarath
Improvisation, Creativity and Consciousness
Ed Sarath is a Professor of music in the Department in Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance and also director of the U-M Program in Creativity and Consciousness Studies. He divides his time between teaching, scholarship, performing, composing, recording, speaking, and spearheading leadership initiatives.
He founded and serves as president of the International Society for Improvised Music (www.isimprov.org) and has recently launched the Alliance for the Transformation of Musical Academe (ATMA) and The International Consortium for Academic and Societal Transformation (ICAST).
His most recent book is Music Studies and Its Moment of Truth: Leading Change through America’s Black Music Roots. It follows Black Music Matters: Jazz and the Transformation of Music Studies (Rowman and Littlefield, 2018) which along, with prior book Improvisation, Creativity, and Consciousness: Jazz as Integral Template for Music, Education, and Society (SUNY/Albany, 2013), are the first to apply principles of an emergent, consciousness-based worldview called Integral Theory to music.
He designed the BFA in Jazz and Contemplative Studies, the first degree program at a mainstream academic institution to include a significant meditation and consciousness studies component.
He is active globally as guest speaker as well as performer and composer, having collaborated with leading artists across wide-ranging genres. His recording New Beginnings features the London Jazz Orchestra performing his large ensemble compositions and his solo flugelhorn work. His music spans jazz, classical and broader global horizons, as in Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva for 90-voice choir, string orchestra, and jazz soloists; His Day is Done, for Symphony Orchestra, Choir, and Jazz soloists based on a Maya Angelou poem dedicated to Nelson Mandela and premiered at Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa; and Rites of Passage, performed by Amazonas Jazz Orchestra in Manaus, Brazil.
Podcasts
Featured on the Beyond Mastery Podcast
“My primary mentor for the Adventures course is the extraordinary Edward Sarath, and I’m delighted to announce he is featured in our newest Beyond Mastery podcast episode, “Black Music Matters & Noetic Musicology”. Ed shares his expansive vision for music, education, and humanity—this episode is a must-listen.”
– Eugene Friesen
Featured on the Consciousness & Human Potential Podcast
Improvisation isn’t just a musical technique, it’s a fundamental way of engaging with life, according to Ed Sarath, a longtime leader in the movement to integrate music, education, and spiritual practice. Sarath says improvisation is not simply fast composition, it’s a distinct, interactive process that can open the door to heightened and shared awareness. He also takes these ideas beyond music into areas like sports, where improvisation shows up as reading the moment, continuous adaptation, and split-second decision-making.
Books
