Andrew Goldman - Andrew joined the Centre for Music and Science in 2010 as an MPhil student researching cognitive models of musical improvisation, and developing empirical paradigms to test theories of musical improvisation. Improvisers use different types of musical knowledge. They use motor patterns (“muscle memory”) which are constrained by the body’s technique and their instrument’s design. They also know theoretical musical structures like forms and harmonic progressions which are not specific to their instrument or technique. Cognitive models of musical improvisation acknowledge that both of these types of knowledge play a role for the improviser, but how they interact and the extent to which musician’s rely on either is unclear. This research attempts to clarify the apparent distinction between these types of knowledge and demonstrate how experimentally varying musical context can affect access to either type.

Andrew begins his PhD studies in October, 2011, which will focus on the pedagogy of improvisation. He will examine how improvisation is taught, how creative expertise develops, and how the knowledge necessary to improvise extends into the design of and interface with musical instruments. Improvisation is taken as a case study of the psychology of creativity and tool use.

Andrew is a pianist, composer, and budding cognitive psychologist from San Diego, California. He grew up studying piano and composition with Mitzi Kolar, also studying clarinet with Charles Ellis-MacLeod, playing in local wind ensembles, orchestras, and a marching band.

He matriculated at the University of Southern California to study piano with Daniel Pollack. While at USC, he became interested in behavioral science. In 2008, he collaborated with a fellow student under the supervision of Irving Biederman and published a study on the aesthetics of blindness and deafness. He also spent a semester abroad at the University College London researching the neuroscience of face recognition with Bradley Duchaine,

Andrew graduated summa cum laude from USC in 2008 with a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance and a Bachelor of Arts in Neuroscience, earning USC’s Discovery Scholar Certification for artistic accomplishment and USC’s Renaissance Scholar Prize for academic achievement in disparate disciplines. As a student at USC, he also studied composition with Erica Muhl, performed new music by student composers, composed scores for student films, and played educational concerts for local schools as the pianist for the Thornton Outreach Ensemble. During summers as an undergraduate, he gigged around San Diego as the pianist in a jazz quintet called The Sunset Five.

After graduation he stayed in Los Angeles and gigged as a concerto soloist, musical theater repetiteur, and recitalist. He also joined Antonio and Hanna Damasio’s lab group, The Brain and Creativity Institute, as a research assistant working with Mary Helen Immordino-Yang on the neuroscience of social emotions. While living in Los Angeles, he became affiliated with the Brevard Music Center in Brevard, North Carolina first as a piano student of Norman Krieger in 2008 and 2009, and then as a faculty member in 2010 teaching a general course in musicology, writing program notes, and giving pre-concert lectures.