I spend much of my musical life listening closely to singers as they express the words of operas, oratorios, and cantatas. As a continuo player, I have the pleasure of responding to a singer in empathy—joining in melody, "painting" words, and adding punctuation to sentences. Creating improvisations with my friends—poets, video artists, singers, and instrumentalists—calls upon the same desire to connect and respond to their work—perhaps with added freedom!