Improvising with Community: An Evaluation of a Community Vocal Improvisation Program

This report presents the findings of a program evaluation of vocal improvisation programming offered in Guelph from March to June 2014. The program consisted of a series of vocal improvisation workshops open to any interested participants, a symposium on vocal improvisation that was also open to the public, and a final public performance by workshop members. The program was developed and implemented by Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice (ICASP) postdoctoral fellow Chris Tonelli. The following partners supported the programming through a range of cash and in‐kind contributions: ICASP; the newly‐formed International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI); the Institute for Community Engaged Scholarship (ICES); the Guelph Jazz Festival; and CFRU community radio.

Tonelli’s program consisted of a series of weekly free drop-in improvisation workshops (which he called community voice exploration gatherings) facilitated at first by Tonelli and then by a series of other prominent vocal improvisers. On June 26th, Tonelli and his collaborators held a Symposium on Voice, Agency, and Improvisation, and the day ended with a free public performance by Five of the world’s leading vocal improvisers in collaboration with the Guelph Vocal Exploration Choir.

The report, Improvising with Community: An Evaluation of a Community Vocal Improvisation Program is available under Downloads (right column of this page), as a PDF document.