News

This Saturday, October 16th, IICSI is thrilled to be hosting live music in the Arboretum to celebrate the launch of a new installation project! Join us at 1 pm on the Memorial Forest boardwalk (see directions below) for a pop-up, physically distanced, improvised musical performance by Richard Burrows and Daniel Morphy of TorQ Percussion Quartet,…

Our Institute is making headlines!   Thanks to Guy Dixon at The Globe and Mail for a fantastic article published this past week on the role of improvisation in society, highlighting IICSI’s work. The piece, which discusses how “improvisational music offers a blueprint in creative collaboration far beyond the artistic realm,” is an excellent introduction to the…

This year’s edition of the internationally celebrated Guelph Jazz Festival is fast approaching—with events taking place all around the city from September 14th-19th—and IICSI is pleased to be co-presenting two events included in the Jazz Fest’s programming! SOUND MILL IICSI and the Guelph Jazz Festival present SOUND MILL, a site-specific multi-channel sound (+ light) installation by…

From the bottom of our hearts, we want to thank all those who were able to join us for IF 2021, the second iteration of IICSI’s all-day, all-night, online celebration of improvised arts. This international Festival, which took place on the weekend of August 13-15, celebrated the values at the core of our Institute: the…

IICSI is thrilled to announce our second annual all-day, all-night, online celebration of improvised arts: IF 2021! Starting on August 14th at midnight UTC+1 (August 13th at 7pm, EDT), join us to experience a full 24-hours featuring innovative artists of all disciplines—music, dance, theatre, poetry, visual arts, and more—showcasing new, improvised works filmed in their…

“Volume II: Improvisation, Musical Communities, and the COVID-19 Pandemic” Critical Studies in Improvisation / Études critiques en improvisation—IICSI’s peer-reviewed, open-access journal—has released a special double issue of Critical Studies in Improvisation / Études critiques en improvisation: “Volume II: Improvisation, Musical Communities, and the COVID-19 Pandemic.” This issue features musicians, performers, scholars, arts presenters, and other cultural workers…

Improvisation & Convivencia in East LA We are excited to share a video showcasing IICSI research being conducted in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles by the Alliance for California Traditional Arts and Dr. George Lipsitz! This short video, directed and edited by Sara Aguilar, showcases the work conducted by artist fellows as part of the Building Healthy…

Recordings of 2020-21 Thinking Spaces lectures are now available in our research library! In the Fall 2020 and Winter 2021 semesters, IICSI presented an online iteration of Thinking Spaces, the improvisation reading group and speaker series. Moving the series online created an opportunity to connect with a diverse range of guest speakers and audience members…

IICSI and Musagetes are pleased to announce the inaugural Big Ideas in Improvisation lecture: Fred Moten & Vijay Iyer in Conversation. This online event on May 28th, 2021 (7pm EDT) will bring these two artistic visionaries, social activists, and MacArthur “Genius” award winners together for an evening of provocative and inspiring dialogue. This lecture is…

Improvisational free jazz/post rock quartet Vertical Squirrels (comprised of IICSI’s director Ajay Heble, IICSI researcher / professor Daniel Fischlin, and all-star musical improvisors Ted Warren and Lewis Melville) have released a new record through Ambiances Magnétiques entitled Le gouffre / The Chasm. The album was recorded during a 2019/20 residency at Silence as part of…