George Lewis describes himself as a hybrid, multi-voiced experimental artist, in terms of culture, discourse and practice. Guided by virtuosity, curiosity and rigorous scholarship, Lewis is a trombonist who takes part in free improvisation, who constructs and performs computer music, creates technologically advanced multi-media installations and performance works, composes pieces for performers of notated music, develops alternative, transcultural methods of teaching improvised music, and writes and publishes theoretical papers in cultural and creative music studies. His interdisciplinary approach to making music proceeds from an awareness of sound toward the affirmation of identity, and the formation and nurturance of community. His collaborations with visual artists, poets and actors regularly integrate image, music and spoken text.

"My prime concerns in the creation of new work always involve the aesthetic, philosophical, cultural and social implications of music. The issues raised by my work deal with the nature of music and, in particular, the processes by which musicians produce it. I seek, through improvisation, to explore the nature of interactivity­confrontation and cooperation, gesture, intention, empathy, personal narrative, and cultural memory. One of my main activities has been the production of intellectual tools that will enhance the ability of musicians to study improvised music in all of its complexity and diversity. I feel that this work should feed back directly into new work, rather than simply chronicling or analyzing past performances."