Nick Ortiz, Saxophonist
Improvising
My training in improvisation comes from a combination of jazz pedagogy and free-improvisation practices taught by students of John Cage and Pauline Oliveros. In cultivating my own practice, I search for inspiration in studying 20th century visual art and natural/cosmic phenomena to realize acoustic and electro-acoustic improvised performances. I have been a member of the Illinois Improviser's Exchange, COLAB: Music and Dance collective, and collaborated with performance painters as a solo artist. In advocating for improvised music, I have co-hosted Salon Impromptu, an initative to create informal concert experiences where musicians and audiences are exposed to exisiting and new compositions featuring improvisation.
Unrehearsed MKE #115
August 13, 2022
Trio Improvisation
Second half of the set for the 115th iterations of Unrehearsed MKE. Trio combined contemporary, jazz, pop, and classical musics in several short settings for a livestream audience and members of the Bay View neighborhood in Milwaukee, WI.
Performers:
Barry Paul Clark - Bass
Steve Gallum - Alto Sax
Nick Ortiz - Tenor Sax
SPLICE Institute Group Improvisation
July 2, 2021
Free-Improvised Sextet
Part of the final performance in the "Art of Improvisation" Workshop facilitated by Popebama (Erin Rogers/Dennis Sullivan). Part of SPLICE Institute 21 (Virtual)
Performers: Julia Brooks, Seamus Hubbard Flynn, Jacob Frost, Justin Massey, Connor Scroggins and Nick Ortiz
Night Rain
June 21, 2021
World Premiere
Saxophone and Rain/Thunderstorm
This piece is part of my ongoing project, Water Sketches, which seeks to represent water in different natural contexts. It is in these places I find the most solace. This quasi-improvisatory work is influenced by Pauline Oliveros, Ruth-Crawford Seeger, Claude Debussy, and Philip Glass.
Meditation 1
April 5, 2020
Saxophone and Electronics
A meditation against a palindromic electronics track, reflecting my early, scattered feelings of the COVID-19 Pandemic and its effects on those around me.
Piano Improvisation 1
2018
Piano
Piano improvisation inspired by the music of Justin Hurtiwz, Erik Satie, Sigur Ros, and The Wombats.
Concentric Circles
2018
COLAB: Music and Dance
Excerpt from performance at Temple Buell Hall at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Fall 2018.
Ode to the Above
2018
COLAB: Music and Dance
Excerpt from performance at Temple Buell Hall at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Fall 2018. Composer: Scott Knier
