IICSI events

Name: IICSI 2025 Improviser-in-Residence Marilyn Crispell in Concert at the ImprovLab
Start: 2025-10-18T19:00:00-04:00
End: 2025-10-18T21:00:00-04:00
Location: ImprovLab

February 2025
Thinking Spaces: Andrew Goldman, “The Cognition of Musical Improvisation: Theories and Experiments”

February 11, 2025 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

ImprovLab MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

Improvisation is a challenging topic to study using the theories and methods of cognitive science owing to the difficulty of defining it, and the diversity of improvisatory practices. I share my theoretical frameworks for engaging this challenge as well as the results from some behavioral and neuroscientific studies. Ultimately, I draw upon improvisation as a case study for exploring the difficulties of using science to understand music more generally.

Free
March 2025
Thinking Spaces: Fron Reilly, “Acoustic Innovation: Is There Anything Left to Invent?”

March 4, 2025 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

ImprovLab MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

This talk will tell the story of four innovative acoustic musical instruments that Fron have created over the past few years. It will focus on the creative process in which he accesses his lifelong fascination with sound and delve into his background in physics to invent new ways of connecting the vibrations of strings to the human ear and brain.”

Free
April 2025
Journée d’étude: Improvisation, Pedagogy, and Cocreative Worldmaking

April 3, 2025 @ 9:00 am - 5:30 pm

ImprovLab MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

—"An adept improviser can find ways forward amid impasse, agency amid oppression, and community amid division." – The Improviser's Classroom Join us on April 3, 2025 at ImprovLab for a full-day symposium investigating ways to re-imagine pedagogy through the prisms of activism, reciprocity, and communal care. This free, open-to-everyone event is focused around the launch…
Why Arts Matter Research Speaker Series: Technology

April 24, 2025 @ 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm

ImprovLab MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

This panel will explore the transformative impact of technology on culture, the arts, and our understanding of the world. Featuring Dr. Peter Kuling, Dr. Susan Brown, Dr. Rozita Dara, and Dr. Donald Bruce, this discussion will examine how digital performance, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence are reshaping cultural engagement and artistic expression. The panelists will delve into the ethical implications of emerging technologies, the role of digital humanities in fostering collaboration, diversity, and inclusivity, and the ways science and technology are portrayed in media.

Free
June 2025
Improvnetics: Post-anthropocentric performance and improvisational modes for human-AI play, or: What we talk about when we talk about Intersentient empathy. | IMPR Colloquium by Michael Bergmann

June 10, 2025 @ 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm

ImprovLab MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

Please join us on Zoom or in the ImprovLab for a hybrid presentation of an IMPR Student Colloquium by Michael Bergmann! Michael Bergmann is a Canadian artist and scholar. He is a tenured Associate Professor in Performance at Toronto Metropolitan University. His research-creation work explores the integration of AI and robotics into performance and storytelling,…

Free
SOUNDTRACK TO THE REVOLUTION Book Launch (+ Film Screening)

June 24, 2025 @ 6:30 pm

The Bookshelf Cinema 41 Quebec Street, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

Mark the date! You are invited to The Bookshelf Cinema on June 24th for the launch of Soundtrack to the Revolution by Eric Fillion. This scintillating book tells the story of Quebec’s Jazz Libre, a radical experiment in musical activism that reveals the meaningful role that the art of spontaneity played in the turbulent 1960s…

Free
August 2025
MILE Camp Concert: Musique du Moment @ Bell House

August 10, 2025 @ 7:00 pm

Bell House 167 Route 132 Ouest, Percé, QC, Canada

(Le français suit) As part of this year's MILE Camp, a free public concert will be held at the historic Bell House in Percé. On Sunday, August 10th, at 7:00 PM (EDT), camp facilitator and multi-Emmy-winning improvising pianist D.D. Jackson will perform in a duo with singer Zoé Jean-Deslauriers. Currently based in New Jersey, Jackson…

Free
MILE Camp Concert: D. D. Jackson Solo Piano Improvisation

August 11, 2025 @ 8:00 pm

Corner of the Beach Cultural Museum 294 route 132 est, Coin-du-Banc, Quebec, Canada

(Le français suit) On Monday, August 11th, at 8:00 PM, audiences will have a unique opportunity to see an intimate improvised solo piano performance by D.D. Jackson at the Musée culturel de Coin-du-Banc / Corner of the Beach Cultural Museum (294 route 132 East in Coin-du-Banc). Jackson, who has played with such jazz luminaries as…
MILE Camp Concert: D.D. Jackson + MILE Camp Participants

August 15, 2025 @ 4:00 pm

Corner of the Beach Cultural Museum 294 route 132 est, Coin-du-Banc, Quebec, Canada

(Le français suit) On Friday, August 15th, at 4:00 PM, D.D. Jackson will be joined by MILE Camp participants at the Musée culturel de Coin-du-Banc / Corner of the Beach Cultural Museum (294 route 132 East in Coin-du-Banc) for our third and final MILE Camp concert of the year! This performance—a Grand Finale group improvisation—will…
September 2025
Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium 2025: “Dance with the Music: Movement in the Improvised Arts”

September 11, 2025 @ 1:00 pm - September 13, 2025 @ 11:00 am

ImprovLab MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

The 2025 Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium will take place in the ImprovLab at the University of Guelph from September 11-13, 2025. Presented by the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI) and curated by its Director, Dr. Eric Fillion, this year’s colloquium is titled “Dance with the Music: Movement in the Improvised Arts.” Focused on the…

Free
October 2025
Thinking Spaces: Lucy Rupert, Lisa Hirmer, and Christina Kingsbury “Interdisciplinary Improvisation & Ultrasonic Moth Songs”

October 7, 2025 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

ImprovLab MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

In August 2024, dancer Lucy Rupert, musician Ben Finley, as well as artists Christina Kingsbury and Lisa Hirmer, collaborated on the interdisciplinary performance Ultra-sonic Moth Songs. Audiences present that magical summer evening experienced improvised music and movement among the moths at the Moth Garden! Join us to watch some of the beautiful archival video of the event and talk about the process of creating this environmentally inspired, multi-disciplinary improvised performance.

Free
IICSI 2025 Improviser-in-Residence Marilyn Crispell in Concert at the ImprovLab

October 18, 2025 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

ImprovLab MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

IICSI is thrilled to announce that a free night of performances by renowned pianist Marilyn Crispell will take place in ImprovLab on Saturday, October 18th. These performances will be the culmination of a week of workshops and collaborative sessions Crispell will lead as IICSI’s 2025 Improviser-in-Residence. In her first performance of the evening, at 7…

Free

February 2025

March 2025

April 2025

June 2025

August 2025

September 2025

October 2025

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