Creative Music Foundation

Music is our common language

CMS Community

Today, a thriving CMS community lives on in a remarkable network of players in the Woodstock area, in New York and around the world. We are connecting with CMS Guiding Artists and Alumni to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Creative Music Studio and to gather stories about their time at the Studio and the influence of CMS in their lives.

A Creative Music Studio Directory is in the works.

Bands formed through connections made at the Creative Music Studio:

CMS Guiding Artists:

Creative Music Studio instructors, known as "Guiding Artists", included the luminaries of the Avant Jazz,  World Jazz communities. The list of 100+ Guiding Artists can be seen at our Guiding Artists page.

CMS Participants include Ted Orr (guitar/midi guitar, tablas), who was the cook at CMS from 1979-84.  His career has been studded with ensembles that include fellow CMSers...Swollen Monkeys, Futu Futu, Blue Food, various bands with Gary and Pam Windo, and BLOB. He currently also works in a P-Funk offshoot called 420 Funk Mob. He is partners with Karl at Sertso Studio, and is chief engineer for the CMS Archive Project. Ted Orr is on Facebook and is the admin of the CMS Facebook page.

CMS Guiding Artists

The Creative Music Foundation and its educational program the Creative Music Studio were founded by Karl Berger, Ingrid Sertso, and Ornette Coleman. CMS was considered the premier study center for creative music in the 70s and 80s. Over 100 Guiding Artists came to CMS to teach, including: Don Cherry, Dave Holland, Carla Bley, Jack DeJohnette, Steve Gorn, Anthony Braxton, Jimmy Giuffre, Wadada Leo Smith, The Art Ensemble Of Chicago, Pat Metheny, George Lewis, Lee Konitz, Nana Vasconcelos, Trilok Gurtu, Collin Walcott, Oliver Lake, John Cage, Ismet Siral, Ed Blackwell, and Cecil Taylor.

Help Support CMS In Its 40th Year


The Creative Music Foundation and Creative Music Studio are building on its 40 year legacy with new programs to enhance artistic development through workshops, residencies, performances, recordings and archival projects. We urgently need need your support.

Join with us to share this groundbreaking music with the world and help us continue to nurture the next generation of improvising, creative musicians.

Please make donation checks payable to “Creative Music Foundation” and send to Creative Music Foundation, POB 671, Woodstock, NY 12498, or click to PayPal donate button. Note: We process all credit cards through PayPal. You do not need to have a PayPal account yourself. We use PayPal because they provide the strongest most secure servers on the planet. Thank you.

Media

Karl Berger's Improvisers Orchestra at El Taller, New York, NY, Dec 13, 2012