Yes. One of our key experts in curriculum design is professor Ed Sarath, a leader in musical creativity, consciousness studies, and educational reform. Prof. Sarath is founder of Jazz department and the Program for Creativity and Consciousness Studies at the University of Michigan, founder of the International Society for Improvised Music, author of Improvisation, Creativity, and Consciousness, and author of the textbook Music Theory Through Improvisation.
Where my work deviated from convention was in the formation of alternative
and expanded approaches to improvisation ... I call this a trans-stylistic approach,
in that instead of imposing style constraints at the outset, it allows musicians to draw
upon their own backgrounds so that style can manifest as a result of the process.
... From early on, I would have [orchestra] members meditate during rehearsals
and prior to concerts. Tapping into interior regions of silence enhanced spontaneity,
invention, and a kind of inter-subjective communion between musicians, and
musicians and audience, that is uniquely possible in improvised music.
...What also excites me about this work is the capacity for it to enhance
conventional learning. The coming educational revolution is not about rejecting
conventional learning modalities, but rather placing that within an expanded
context that also includes first-person meditation and related practices that probe
the interior dimensions of consciousness.
...Arts and creativity studies cultivate inventiveness, adaptability, interactive
skills, the ability to synthesize principles from diverse areas, personal and
interpersonal connections, and a richly multi-ethnic aesthetic awareness.