Freedom’s More than “Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose”

Abstract This chapter outlines how improvisation facilitates freedom yet also brings important relational aspects of collective music making to the fore. This author proposes that we move beyond a traditional craft-based notion of virtuosity to include skills such as listening virtuosities, collaborative virtuosities, social virtuosities, and creative virtuosities. Virtuosity, like freedom, is a much-debated term and its use and meaning are the focus of considerable current academic discourse. This is an important debate since what is valued as a prestigious skill in musical terms helps define what it means to be a musician. This is a socially constructed term and evolves over time. What is valued by wider society as musical expertise is constantly evolving, and it is important to challenge contemporary notions of virtuosity since they are constructed along narrow parameters emphasizing craft notions of musically (how fast and how conventionally accurately one can play). Thus, rather than rejecting the notion of musical virtuosity, we broaden it, reclaiming it to include a wider range of skills.