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Schedule for Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium now available

The schedule for Improvisation, the Arts, and Social Policy, the 2009 Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium, is now available online as a PDF document. The Colloquium runs September 9-11, 2009 at the University of Guelph, Macdonald Stewart Art Centre in conjunction with the Guelph Jazz Festival, which runs until Sept. 13.

Highlights of the event include:

  • Keynote speeches by Robin Kelley (History and American Studies, University of Southern California), "Citizen Monk: Stories of Civic Engagement and Visionary Politics" and Milford Graves (Bennington College/International Center for Medicinal and Scientific Studies).
  • The premiere of a specially commissioned musical score at the formal launch of Hearing-Visions-Sonores, Guelph Extension – a multimedia art exhibition featuring the graphic scores of 13 composer/improvisers.
  • Performances by Gustavo Aguilar and Gaelyn Aguilar, Rodéoscopique, and Scott Thomson
  • A series of roundtable and panel discussions on topics such as: Intercultural Improvisations: History, Religion, Crisis, Change; Pedagogy, Protest, and Alternative Communities; IImprovisation, Cultural Policy, and Arts Funding; Listening, Ethics, Errors; and, The Ethics of Improvising with At-Risk or Aggrieved Communities.
  • An interview with Tanya Tagaq, Inuit throat singer.

The three-day event is free and is open to the public.

Improvisation is, simply put, being and living this very moment. No one can hide in music, and improvising in music is to be truly in this very moment and being completely yourself, with all your qualities and faults. It is probably the most honest state for a human being to be in.

– John McLaughlin in an interview with Daniel Fischlin.