Performances

Improvisation, interactive concerts, and live music
Lisl Kuutti, cello

I specialize in unique concert experiences that bring the audience into the action.

Hear samples

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Improvised Music

High Country Improv Collective

The High Country Improv Collective performs concerts of freely improvised music with a variety of instruments and voices. We play together about once a week and enjoy bringing our music to audiences as well. We invite listeners to experience the connection and immediacy of improvised music!

Our improvisation takes us on adventures through different styles, including several flavors of popular, classical, and avant-garde. Concerts have often included demonstrations of creative improvisation exercises we use to structure our group music-making, welcoming listeners to share in our thought process. Poetry readings often shape our music. In addition to pieces springing from our mutual imagination, we sometimes weave spontaneous music based on concepts suggested by the audience - a moving experience and meeting of minds.

Concerts may involve any combination of members and instruments depending on who is available, much like our weekly meetings! Instruments have included trombone, piano, keyboard, cello, guitar, accordion, voice, drums, percussion instruments of many kinds, flute, clarinet, recorder, shruti box, and more.

Recitals

with solo cello or cello + piano

Lisl Kuutti, cello | Jim Lodin, piano

Go inside the music with us! We love to share background, context, and interesting facts about the music and our instruments if the audience would welcome it. Recital talks also include a time for Q&A. See some of our recital themes below.

The Magic of the Cello, Explained

Featuring Bach suites for solo cello, the Haydn C Major concerto, Saint-Saëns’ “The Swan,” pop arrangements, my own compositions, and more. I will illustrate how the cello works, how composers wrote for its specific capabilities over the centuries, and the musical science behind why so many people tell me “the cello is my favorite instrument!” (Versions available for the public or for composers wishing to write for the cello.)

Romantic Era Cello and Piano with pianist Jim Lodin

Featuring Schumann’s Fantasy Pieces Op. 73, Elgar’s Salut D’amour, and other Romantic pieces in our repertoire. The long-lined melodies of the cello combine with the glittering chords of the piano for an interplay that pulls and pushes the heart. Be carried away with each composer’s vision, and in between, learn how each instrument contributes its unique value to the ensemble. We will also pull back the curtain on our rehearsal process: hear how we translate the score into specific techniques that convey the composer’s intent and the music’s soul.

At the Movies with pianist Jim Lodin

Hear how film composers drew inspiration from the epic orchestration and intimate songwriting of the Romantic era to create the soundtracks we love. Take in the many moods of the cello and piano (far beyond the sad cello solo when a character dies!) and learn the inner workings of how a few musical moments evoke certain emotions. We will also demonstrate a largely forgotten skill: improvising music to match the action in a silent movie!

A Century of Popular Music with pianist Jim Lodin

After playing 100+ weddings, it’s only natural to have some favorite pieces that bring joy to the players and the party alike! We will share hits from the decades that will take you back to your record player, Walkman, or mixes burned onto CDs… your parents’ music playing in the house… or discovering the classics that never get old. Hear familiar tunes like you’ve never heard them before with room-filling piano and the voice-like timbre of the cello. Along the way, discover how a piece written for a whole band or studio orchestra is optimized for our instruments based on their respective strengths.