Educational Background/Training
MIMA Teaching Artists are experienced arts educators and/or professional musicians and music producers. Their formal educational and professional experience range from advanced degrees in composition, music education, and special education to published albums and national tours. This variety of backgrounds allows us to tailor programs to the needs of diverse communities. See mimamusic.org for a list of MIMA Teaching Artists.
About the Artist/Ensemble
MIMA (Modern Improvisational Music Appreciation) began in 2000 as a student group founded at Princeton University, aiming to create diverse musical experiences on campus and connect student musicians with underserved youth in urban New Jersey. In 2007, MIMA worked with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to hold a cross-cultural songwriting workshop in Madrid, Spain. We recruited the assistance of local musicians in order to integrate our songwriting approach with Span’s musical culture. The enthusiasm and musical output we generated through that program catalyzed a long-term collaboration with the State Department, manifesting in over 50 programs on five continents. We brought together Greek and Turkish Cypriots to create original music in Nicosia, toured across six African countries with percussionist Leon Mobley and made music with youth in the favelas of Recife, Brazil.
Through our work abroad, we formed an international network of musicians and a set of exercises inspired by their diverse musical traditions. These exercises formed the basis of the MIMA Method, a collaborative music-making methodology grounded in the act of musical improvisation that crosses cultural and linguistic boundaries. In 2008, we began delivering semester-long music programs in New York City.
We began programming in Virginia in 2016, and our work is now focused exclusively on central Virginian communities. As of 2025, we’ve provided over 200 semester-long programs in collaboration with schools, non-profits, and residential communities, serving over 2,500 participants. We also run community workshops, hold concerts, and provide other musical enrichment open to all Virginian music lovers.
Educational Program Description
MIMA’s programs do not rely on a set songbook or established repertoire. Programs aim first to stir a passion for and an active relationship with music before cultivating musical skills, general social-emotional attributes, and positive relationships. We have several different programs designed for participants of a wide age range (from toddlers to seniors) and musical experience and that can be deployed in a variety of formats (e.g. one-day intensive workshop, semester-long residency). Three are highlighted here.
In Band Together, participants set out to collaboratively write, record and perform original music—principally with their own body and voice. Teaching Artists (TAs) use improvisational exercises to encourage students to quickly generate and share rhythmic, melodic and lyrical ideas that they then stitch together into unified compositions. Participants then create studio recordings, music videos, and public performances of these compositions.
In On the Spot, novice to intermediate instrumentalists and vocalists set out to master a framework of communication with which they can hold an improvisational music performance. TAs use a series of exercises to introduce participants to a variety of improvisational practices. Participants then devise and practice their own parameters for improvisation, formulating a language—verbal and gestural—for in-performance communication, assigning roles, selecting values to direct their performances, etc.
Our MIMA Remix program brings participants into the studio, where they assume the roles of composer, producer, audio technician and session musician. Participants write, record, edit, mix and master professional-quality tracks using studio hardware and software like BandLab, Ableton and Protools. TAs work with participants to provide technical tutorials, introduce theoretical concepts, and analyze compositions. Participants then present their individual creations with the group and collaborate to compose original works.
Audiences
- All Ages