Improv Notes: November 2014
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 ImprovNotes News of the Moment
November 2014 IICSI in Athens, Greece
IICSI researchers Eric Lewis (McGill University) and Daniel Fischlin (University of Guelph) with Wadada Leo Smith and Jesse Gilbert. Photo by Yiannis Soulis.
“Sounding Possibilities: Improvisation and Community Action” is the title of a symposium that took place November 1 and 2 in Athens. A joint production of IICSI and the Onassis Cultural Centre, Sounding Possibilities was an interdisciplinary colloquium focused on contemporary improvisatory practices in music, music education and the performing arts, as well as on new forms of social and political action.
Organized by Christos Carras (Onassis Cultural Centre) and IICSI researcher Eric Lewis (McGill University), the symposium featured panels on Political Practice, Educational Practice, Music and Community, and Creative Practice. It brought IICSI researchers Joel Bakan (UBC), Ellen Waterman (Memorial), Daniel Fischlin (Guelph) together with scholars & practitioners Matthieu Saladin (Paris), Alexander Kioupkiolis (Thessaloniki), Gascia Ouzounian (Queen’s University, Belfast), Panos Kanellopoulos (Thessaly), Danae Stefanou (Thessaloniki), Raynaldo Young (London), Ruth Wright (UWO, Ontario), Randall Everett Allsup (Columbia), Jesse Gilbert (Woodbury), Bojana Cvejic (Utrecht), James Wallbank (Access Space, UK), Christos Passalis (blitz theatre, Athens) and Wadada Leo Smith (Cal Arts). The symposium also featured performances by the artists’ collective Medea Electronique, Wadada Leo Smith, and Glue, a Berlin-based trio with Tom Arthurs (trumpet), Miles Perkin (double bass) and Giorgos Dimitriadis (drums and percussion). Smith performed Ten Freedom Summers with his Golden Quartet (Anthony Davis, piano; John Lindberg, double bass; Pheeroan akLaff, drums; and featuring Jesse Gilbert, video). The symposium featured a showing of … in a non-wimpy way, a film on contact improvisation pioneer Steve Paxton by Bojana Cvejić and Lennart Laberenz and available online here.  Gascia Ouzounian, Christos Passalis, James Wallbank, Bojana Cvejik, and Ellen Waterman (IICSI, Memorial University of Newfoundland). Photo by Yiannis Soulis.
Regina Improvisation Studies Centre (RISC)
University of Regina Rebecca Caines reports the launching of the website for the Regina Improvisation Studies Centre at the University of Regina. The Centre is a “response to a growing sense that critical studies in improvisation, and improvising art practices were both important areas of Saskatchewan cultural activity.” Check out the website to hear more about the latest collaborations of IICSI researchers and partners. RISC just hosted a series of workshops and concerts called Sounding Out! Improvisation with iPads, with the Regina Public Library, Glen Elm Branch. Over a hundred children and teenagers got to hear and experience improvising with tablet devices, including performances and workshops by local Regina sound artists Ryan Hill and Ernie Dulanowksy, and performances by the University of Regina iPad Orchestra, directed by Rebecca Caines, David Gerhard and Helen Pridmore. This event was co-sponsored by RISC partners Common Weal Community Arts and Holophon Audio Arts.  Participants in the RISC Improvising with iPads project (2014)
RISC also hosted a performance and workshop by Scott Thomson and Susanna Hood on their Muted Note tour. This 40-performance tour, based on the works of Canadian poet P.K. Page, crisscrosses the country and ends at Bar Co-op L’agitée in Quebec City on November 16. IICSI in Vancouver
University of British Columbia 
Following Susanna Hood’s and Scott Thomson’s noon-hour performance of The Muted Note: Songs Based on Poems by P.K. Page, IICSI convened a colloquium called “Extraordinary Presences: Women, Poetry, Art Song” in the Dodson Room of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.
After a panel of Thomson, Hood, P.K. Page biographer Sandra Djwa and Phanuel Antwi from the Department of English discussed “Extending the Poetics of Song,” composer Lisa Cay Miller performed a version of her Lessing Stories for extended piano. The next panel, “Collaborations and Challenges, Sounding Out,” brought together Vancouver Poet Laureate Rachel Rose, composer Jacquie Leggatt and Bronwyn Malloy from the Department of English to cover subjects as diverse as the policing of the voice, the role of the unreliable narrator in Canadian indie music, and the Vancouver performance group the Institute for Domestic Research. Thanks to Kevin McNeilly for convening this fascinating and far-reaching afternoon of music and discussion!  Lisa Cay Miller
Quote of the Month
"The energy in Albert Ayler and in the Bomb (metaphor for all violence) comes from the same field. But the one is a breathtakingly beautiful psychic phenomenon, the other is a terrible force which destroys humans and all sentient beings, every lovely thing that lives where the fire hits, and in so doing, it degrades all of us and edges all of our psyches back into the dark and prevents any light and life within us from reaching out in even the humblest manner toward more light and toward the more startling possibilities within us all. ImprovNotes |
Artist of the Month
Al Neil
 Al Neil, 1986. Photo by Chris Cameron. Al Neil at Ninety Improviser-In-Residence
Ding-Dong with Dong-Won  Photo by Paul Watkins
Bring open hearts, open minds, voices, feet, bodies, ears, instruments, curiosity, and joy to this event. Both audience members and performers welcome. No prior experience necessary. Free. Future sessions: Session #6: Composition in Improvisation - Tuesday, November 18th 7-9 pm. Silence, 46 Essex St., Guelph.
Final Concert: Saturday, November 29th, 7pm, Co-operators Hall, River Run Centre (details below) Session #7: Homage to Silence - Tuesday, December 2nd 7-9 pm. Silence, 46 Essex St., Guelph. Don't miss Dong-Won's finale concert and performance! He will be teaming up with a number of collaborators including the Guelph Symphony Orchestra (directed by Judith Yan), the Guelph Youth Jazz Ensemble (directed by Brent Rowan), dancer Georgia Simms, and musicians Jeff Bird, Adam Bowman, Daniel Fischlin, Ben Grossman, and Lewis Melville.  Also announcing a special concert on December 12th at 8pm at Gallery 245 in Toronto. The evening is titled "The Path Home: An Evening of Celebration with Lee Pui Ming (piano), Dong-Won Kim (Korean drum), Rob Clutton (bass), Randi Helmers (voice/visual art), & Mary Ganzon (movement)." These five extraordinary artists journey through the labyrinth in sound, song, and movement. Tickets $25/$15.South Korean percussionist Dong-Won Kim is the 2014 Improviser-In-Residence, a joint initiative between the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation and Musagetes.
Sound It Out!
Radio Show and Podcast Sound It Out is a bi-weekly broadcast produced in conjunction with the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI). On the show we think, talk, listen and yes, make sounds, in order to foreground how musical relationships institute and reflect social relationships. How can artistic practices expand our means for interpersonal recognition and respect? Sound It Out is produced and hosted by Rachel Elliott, and is broadcast in Guelph, Ontario on CFRU 93.3FM. Listen live on Thursdays from 3:00-4:00pm (and listen to past shows in the CFRU archive). Call for Papers Critical Studies in Improvisation / Études critiques en improvisation Critical Studies in Improvisation / Études critiques en improvisation (CSI-ÉCI) invites submissions for a special issue with the theme “Cultural, social, and political issues of current improvisation practices in music,” guest-edited by Postdoctoral Fellow Amandine Pras. We seek contributions from scholars whose interdisciplinary research lies at the intersection of music and life sciences disciplines (ethnology, anthropology, economics, politics, sociology, gender studies, cultural studies, psychology, among others).
 The Walrus Talks Resilience
Enacting the Possibilities we Envision: Improvisation, Resilience, Hope On October 8th, 2014, IICSI project director Ajay Heble delivered a talk at the Art Gallery of Ontario as part of The Walrus Talks series. Dr. Heble was joined by poet and student Mustafa Ahmed, Rick Huijbregts (Cisco Canada), Annie Kidder (People for Education), David Miller (WWF Canada), Gabrielle Scrimshaw (Aboriginal Professional Association of Canada), Matthew Teitelbaum (Art Gallery of Ontario) and Frances Westley (SIG@Waterloo). This talk is now available online. People Ben Authers From the beginning of 2015, Ben Authers will be joining the School of Law and Justice at the University of Canberra, Australia, as an assistant professor. A former graduate researcher with ICASP at the University of Guelph, Ben (who completed his PhD under the supervision of IICSI Director Ajay Heble) has held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Alberta and at the Australian National University. In his new position, Ben will be researching and teaching in human rights and law and the humanities. Congratulations to Ben on his new posting! People Ingrid Mündel Please join us in offering our hearty congratulations to Ingrid Mündel on the recent completion of her PhD. Ingrid is a former graduate researcher with ICASP and IICSI, and her dissertation was completed under the supervision of IICSI Director Ajay Heble. About IICSI
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