Improvisation for Musicians - Outside the Lines

Please Note: This course can only accommodate a certain number of pianists, as such we ask pianists considering this course, not to register without having contacted adultdivision@riam.ie beforehand.

Improvisation was once a part of every musician’s training. This course is for musicians with curiosity and willingness to explore ideas inside and outside the box.

Together we will make music of here and now, embracing imperfections and impermanence. This course is immersive in nature and process-driven. Participants will learn by exploring music in real-time, in a space that’s free of preconceived ideas and expectations.

Engage in improvisation exercises/game playing as starting points. New games will be invented in the process. Share your feedback and join in discussions about the improvisation, as well as other areas of musical activities and the connections with other art forms.

All participants will improvise numerous pieces in front of and with the others in the course. The music can be documented if desired.  

Course Schedule:

• Session 1:            12th January 2026        7:00 – 8:30 PM (Organ Room)
• Session 2:            19th January 2026        7:00 – 8:30 PM (Organ Room)
• Session 3:            26th January 2026        7:00 – 8:30 PM (Organ Room)

No sessions on the 2nd of February (Bank Holiday Monday)

• Session 4:             9th February 2026        7:00 – 8:30 PM (Organ Room)
• Session 5:           16th February 2026        7:00 – 8:30 PM (Organ Room)
• Session 6:           23rd February 2026        7:00 – 8:30 PM (Organ Room)

• Participants age: min. 18+

• Participants are asked to bring their principal (portable) instrument to the sessions. A Piano will be available in the course room. (No provision of harps possible) 

• Participants should be open-minded to experimenting with music, but can come from any level of previous performance experience. 

•  For any queries, please email adultdivision@riam.ie, or phone 01 632 5325. 

Izumi Kimura

Pianist Izumi Kimura has performed extensively throughout the country and abroad since moving to Ireland from Japan in 1995. She has worked with some of the leading performers and ensembles from both disciplines of classical, jazz and improvised music. Her main works in the past decade are contemporary music across genres and improvisation.
Izumi has worked in various formats with institutions, ensembles and small groups, including RTE Symphony Orchestra, RTE Concert Orchestra, Crash Ensemble, Michael d’Arcy, Mia Cooper, Ken Edge, Benjamin Dwyer, Bill Dowdall, Paul Roe, Cora Venus Lunny, Andreea Banciu, Elizabeth Hilliard and many more from the world of classical / contemporary classical music, and with jazz and improvising musicians including Barry Guy, Gerry Hemingway, Tommy Halferty, Ronan Guilfoyle, Michael Buckley, Joe O'Callaghan, Oki Itaru, Dominique Pifarély, Benoît Delbecq, Stéphane Payen, Sarah Buechi, Lina Andonovska, Mathew Jacobson, Nick Roth, Colm O’Hara, and more. She has also collaborated with artists and sound artists including Anthony Kelly, David Stalling and Jaki Irvine.

Improviser
Improvisation being her life-work, she has been involved and developing both solo and chamber group works. Her latest projects are duo with Cora Venus Lunny, duos and trio with Gerry Hemingway and Barry Guy, and quartet with Lina Andonovska, Stéphane Payen, and Mathew Jacobson.
She curated and performed three improvised chamber music concerts as a part of Chamber Series 2022 in National Concert Hall in May 2022, in which she invited guests Cora Venus Lunny, Anthony Kelly, Gerry Hemingway, Lina Andonovska and Dominique Pifarély.

Interpreter of New Music
The composers she worked with include Gerald Barry, John Buckley, Ronan Guilfoyle, Kevin O’Connell, Benjamin Dwyer, Ian Wilson, Greg Caffrey, Fergus Johnston, David Bremner. She has performed at many festivals in Ireland and abroad including RTE Living Music Festival, Boyle Arts Festival, Dublin Dance Festival, Dublin Fringe Festival, Bray Jazz Festival, Galway Jazz Festival, Engage Bandon Arts Festival, Kilkenny Arts Festival, SPECTRUM festival, Music Current Festival, Finding a Voice, Ghent Street Festival of New Music in Belgium, Music 21’s ‘Brazil Now’, 'Artes Da Irlanda' in Sao Paolo, Brazil, Creative Connexions in Sitges, Spain, Ad Libitum Festival in Warsaw, and Azores Festival.

As a result, by the end of the course and having participated fully, participants will have had direct experience that helps them gain;

• Listening skills - the most important skill as a musician. Both deep listening and critical listening will be explored.

• Communication skills 

• Confidence 

• Positive attitude towards mistakes - in improv, every mistake is an opportunity for new discovery 

• Higher harmonic knowledge and rhythmic awareness

• Composition skills - ability to create a piece of music instantly from anything as an inspiration 

• Practice/problem-solving skills 

• Courage to take risks, to trust intuition, to be spontaneous

• Imagination for new ideas 

• Individual thinking and expressing it in music 

• Technical fluency 

• Higher musicianship in general as a result