The most valuable performance tradition in American music—more important than subscription orchestra concerts, new music series, musical theater, rock concerts, and the opera—is the jam session, where musicians of any age, stature, and stylistic bent will agree to improvise at least one song together with the intent of making the best music possible.

I’ve had several “adventures” in my life that on the surface seem relatively unrelated, but have ultimately been spiraling me towards where I am today. My current visit to Los Angeles has been unearthing old and forgotten memories of one of those adventures.

The brainchild of composer Bright Sheng, “The Intimacy of Creativity” aims to bring a workshopping culture to chamber music, organized around a course of rehearsals, discussions, and performances of music by invited composers.

Here’s why it’s so important for ensembles to make sure they keep living composers apprised of performances of their own works: performances are as much the bread and butter of a composer’s career as the performer who actually brings the new work to life onstage.

“Composing and performing help me discover who I am not only as an artist, but as a human being,” says composer and violinist Cornelius Dufallo, who enjoys a richly varied musical career that encompasses music from the realm of avant-garde improvisation to the most exacting fully-notated scores.

Canadian-born composer/pianist Zosha Di Castri has been chosen as the inaugural participant in “New Voices,” a new creative partnership between the New World Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony, and music publisher Boosey & Hawkes designed to identify and nurture emerging composers from the Americas.

Why is indeterminacy still looked upon with such suspicion in the new music world, 100 years after John Cage’s birth?

Curated by Matthew Teodori, the recent festival Perspective: Xenakis featured local, national, and international performers and scholars plying their wares around Austin.

If I’m completely candid, the two large dinosaurs dominating the cover were what first attracted my attention to Travel Diary, a CD of works for percussion duo composed by Tristan Perich, Nathan Davis, David Lang, and Paul Lansky. Was there any way this album could end without someone being eaten alive?

The 2012 Ceremonial at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, in addition to providing its annual dose of celebrity gazing and (this year) a sing-along with Pete Seeger, offered some sage advice from Chuck Close, as well as pithy reflections from many of the award winners.