In-Person Musical Improv Level One with Michael Lutton and Frank Spitznagel and Jacob Horn

Michael has been a Magnet instructor since 2011. He has travelled the country performing in festivals and has taught workshops in Boston and Washington, DC. He has also taught several corporate and team-building workshops.

He began improvising in 2006, and was lucky to train with teachers such as Armando Diaz, Rachel Hamilton, James Eason, and Tara Copeland.

Michael currently teaches Level 1, Level 4: Monoscene, Musical Improv Level 1 and Musical Improv Level 3.

In addition to his teaching duties, Michael is the Director of the Musical Improv Program at the Magnet.

Frank Spitznagel is the Musical Director at Magnet Theater and a piano accompanist who frequently plays for such improv groups as I Eat Pandas, Veal, The Made-Up Musical, Gusto, and many others. He is a graduate of the Boston Conservatory of Music, where he studied piano performance. His work can be heard on several studio recordings. Frank has composed for Comedy Central and the Aspen Comedy Festival. He accompanied Itzhak Perlman in an original jazz composition by Benny Golson at Lincoln Center. He also played the American premiere of The Hired Man Off-Broadway. He has been musical director for productions such as Nunsense (all incarnations), A Chorus Line, Chicago City Limits, and several original musicals.

Jacob started improvising in high school, switched to a cappella while studying Comparative Literature and Latin at Haverford College, and then moved to New York, where improv came back with a vengeance. His tendency to harmonize, syllabize, or beatbox to any music whatsoever—a residual effect of a cappella that musical improv has done nothing to help—continues to make him an unpopular guest at parties.

Since 2014, Jacob has studied and performed all over the city, including Magnet classes with Jon Bander, Armando Diaz, Elana Fishbein, Megan Gray, Louis Kornfield, Michael Lutton, and Peter McNerney. He performs regularly as part of Musical Megawatt and is half of the indie musical improv duo 4D Thieves (with Jennette Cronk), whose appearances include Pittsburgh's Steel City Improv Festival and the Tampa Bay Improv Festival. (Photo: Tim Tiebout Photography)