What would you call a music man who is self-taught on nearly a hundred instruments, prefers adventurous subterranean venues to traditional concert halls, asks audiences not to applaud, and plays extemporaneous music that sounds like written composition?

The Improvisator, of course!

For over twenty years he has performed in wine caves and underground cellars, natural caverns and woodland meadows, century-old churches and vast cathedrals, and other exotic settings. His shows have been set in firelight and darkness, on islands and on water, under planetarium domes and under starlit skies.

He is Cave Music's principal sound bouncer and aritst-in-resonance, creator of evocative sound adventures including Carols in the Caves, Cave of the Bells, Cave of the Drums, Cave of the Spirits (The Faerie Cave, The Mythic Cave, The Spectral Cave), Temple of Drums (Drums of Earth, Drums of Peace), The Improvisator's Bring Your Own Drum Show and Night Voyage.

The instruments he plays are primarily ancient and of all families: strings such as mountain and hammer dulcimers, psalteries and harps; winds such as panpipes, flutes, and concertinas; and percussion ranging from hand drums and kettle drums, to bells, gongs and chimes, to steel pans, vibes and marimbas... and some that are so unusual as to nearly defy description. All are beautifully handmade by master craftsmen.

His shows vary tremendously in style as well as theme. Some of them are loud and some of them are soft. Some are a blend of music and dramatic narration, some invite audience participation, and some contain not a single spoken word. All are generally informal, encouraging a congenial spirit of adventure on the part of listeners.

He produces his own performances and surround-sound recordings and has made a life's study of the acoustics of caves and other reverberant spaces, with the result that his instruments and playing techniques are matched to the sounds of the spaces where they are heard. No two Cave Music shows are ever identical.

His approach to his art emphasizes simplicity, purity of sound, and good will toward the audience, and he seeks with his musicianship to provide an ancient restorative for care-worn spirits in a changing world.