ICASP, with generous support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and community sponsors, is delighted to present roundtables, panels, workshops, and first-rate performances from some of the finest music educators and improvisers working in the world today. The 2013 Summit on Improvisation, Pedagogy, and Community Impact is free and open to the public.

Presenters include Jane Bunnett, David Dove, Rich Marsella, Scott Thomson, Dong-Won Kim, Kathryn Ladano, William Parker, Joe Sorbara, Jesse Stewart, Vincent Benitez, Massimilano Guido, Chris Stover, Scott Currie, Gabriel Solis, and Howard Spring.

Featured performances by William Parker, Dong-Won Kim, Christine Duncan, and Friendly Rich and the Lollipop People.

Overview of the Summit

Improvisation has long been an uncomfortable subject for music educators. When music learning and teaching has come to depend so much on music notation, improvisation has often become an afterthought. In the last two decades, a growing number of musicians and music scholars have suggested that a greater emphasis on improvisation in music performance, history, and theory classes offers enormous potential to help create more innovative music curricula, and richer, more empowering, and more inspiring learning experiences.

From May 23rd-25th, The Summit on Improvisation, Pedagogy, and Community Impact will bring together some of the top musicians, music educators, and music researchers from around the world. We will hear from leading thinkers on improvisation and pedagogy as they present their current research on the subject and discuss their own experiences as teachers, students, and researchers of improvisation. We will work with internationally renowned performer/educators as they run open workshops and performances with youth ensembles from the Guelph area. And together we will seek to develop a set of tools and a language to evaluate improvisation-based research and performance initiatives in our schools and in our communities.

Schedule of Events and Performances

May 23
9:30am – 5:30pm at Boarding House for the Arts, 6 Dublin St. South: Panels and Workshops (More details soon!)
7:00pm at Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, 358 Gordon St.: William Parker with the Guelph Jazz Workshop
8:00pm at Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, 358 Gordon St.: Engine

All events are FREE and open to the public.

We encourage you to download a full PDF version of the event poster here.