[Postponed until Spring 2025] Thinking Spaces: Eric Fillion, Sean Mills, and Désirée Rochat, "Statesman of the Piano: A Conversation on the Politics of Archiving, Curating, and Music Making"
2024-12-05 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Toronto) | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
*Postponed until Spring 2025*
Please join us for Thinking Spaces: “Statesman of the Piano: A Conversation on the Politics of Archiving, Curating, and Music Making” with Eric Fillion, Sean Mills, and Désirée Rochat.

This presentation will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph, as well as online via IICSI’s new Twitch Stream. As always, our Thinking Spaces events are free!
To attend the talk in-person or online, RSVP via our Google Forms.
More About the Roundtable Discussion
Please join co-editors Eric Fillion, Sean Mills, and Désirée Rochat for a conversation around and about Statesman of the Piano: Jazz, Race, and History in the Life of Lou Hooper (MQUP, 2023). The book “sparks new conversations about Hooper’s legacy while shedding light on the cross-border travels and wartime experiences of Black musicians, the politics of archiving and curating, and the connections between race and music in the twentieth century.”
More About the Presenters
Eric Fillion is director of the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI) and assistant professor at the School of Languages and Literatures (SOLAL) at the University of Guelph. His research explores the social and symbolic importance of music, within countercultures and in Canadian international relations. His ongoing work on cultural diplomacy and Canadian-Brazilian relations builds on the experience he has acquired as a musician. It also informs his current research on the postwar Canadian cultural public sphere: his two main projects examine the emergence of the music festival phenomenon in Canada and the entangled sonic histories of diasporic social movements. An affiliate of the North American Cultural Diplomacy Initiative (NACDI), Eric Fillion is the founder of the Tenzier archival record label and co-editor of the journal Critical Studies in Improvisation. He is the author of JAZZ LIBRE et la révolution québécoise: musique-action, 1967-1975 and Distant Stage: Quebec, Brazil, and the Making of Canada’s Cultural Diplomacy. His latest book, Statesman of the Piano: Jazz, Race, and History in the Life of Lou Hooper (co-edited with Sean Mills and Désirée Rochat), is now available through McGill-Queen’s University Press
Sean Mills is professor and Canada Research Chair in Canadian and Transnational History at the University of Toronto. He is the author of The Empire Within: Postcolonial Thought and Political Activism in Sixties Montreal, and A Place in the Sun: Haiti, Haitians, and the Remaking of Quebec. Most recently, Mills is the co-editor (with Eric Fillion and Désirée Rochat) of Statesman of the Piano: Jazz, Race, and History in the Life of Lou Hooper (2023). Mills is a Member of the College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada and a 2024 Fellow of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.

Désirée Rochat is a community educator and transdisciplinary scholar with a PhD in Educational Studies from McGill University. Guided by an integrative approach connecting historical research, community archival preservation and education, her work aims to document, theorize and transmit (hi)stories of Black communities’ activism. Rochat is a FRQSC Post-doctoral fellow at the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling at Concordia University.

Audiopollination Guelph—Season 3, Episode 2
2024-12-18 20:00 - 22:00 (America/Toronto) | Silence, 46 Essex Street, Guelph, Ontario, N1H 3K8, Canada
Audiopollination Guelph returns for our second episode of Season 3, featuring new lineups of musicians and performers performing improvised music never before heard! It’s most likely going to be a chilly evening, but I hope you can make it for the final night of improvisation and community in 2024! (more to come next year)
The 2025 shows still have open slots, but they’re filling up quick! Sign up here!
Audiopollination Guelph is devoted to being identity-affirming space for all people, please come as you are and/or as you desire to be!
Wednesday, December 18th, 2024
Cost: $20/PWYC
Silence (46 Essex Street, Guelph, ON)
Doors Open at 7:30pm | Music Starts at 8pm
Ensemble 1: Nico, Connor Kurtz & Claire
Ensemble 2: Thomas Rolf, Tyson & Monte Fenske
Ensemble 3: Jamie Eriksen, David Sait & Tess Martens
Ensemble 4: Wettendrop
Please do your part to keep Audiopollination Guelph scent-free.
We are so thankful for support to the show from the Guelph Arts Council!
It’s flu season, so masks are encouraged and will be provided at the door.
Note: While the suggested payment is now $20, the show is still fully PWYC and NOTAFLOF.

Thinking Spaces: Justine Woods, “Re-stitching as Methodology: Garment-making as a Transformative Practice in Research-creation”
2025-01-21 12:00 - 13:30 (America/Toronto) | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join us on Tuesday, January 21 at 12:00 PM (ET) for Thinking Spaces: “Re-stitching as Methodology: Garment-making as a Transformative Practice in Research-creation” with Justine Woods.

This presentation will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph. As always, our Thinking Spaces events are free!
To attend the talk, RSVP via our Google Forms.
More About this Workshop:
In this combined presentation and workshop, Justine Woods will discuss garment-making as research-creation with particular focus on the role garments play in resisting settler colonial displacement of Indigenous ontologies and bodies to place. Informed by her PhD dissertation research, Justine will expand upon the concept of ‘re-stitching’ as both a theoretical framework and embodied practice in exploring how the act of garment-making done by the Indigenous body can regenerate Indigenous ontology and re-stitch new worlds and futurities.
To support the workshop component of the talk, attendees are encouraged to bring an article of clothing that they do not mind making permanent changes and or adjustments to.
More About the Presenter:
Justine Woods is a garment-artist, creative scholar, educator, and curator. Stretching across fields of study, including but not limited to, fashion studies, performance and embodiment, and research-creation, Justine’s work passionately situates fashion as a pluriversal phenomenon. Her research centres garment-making as a practice-based method of inquiry toward re-stitching alternative worlds that prioritize Indigenous resurgence and liberation. To learn more about Justine, please visit her website: www.justinewoods.com
To attend the talk, RSVP via our Google Forms.

Wet Sounds Series Presents: Pantayo
2025-01-25 19:00 - 21:30 (America/Toronto) | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join us Saturday, January 25 at 7:00 PM (ET) for Wet Sounds 2: Pantayo, presented by our friends at Musagetes.

This presentation will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph.

Suggested PWYC tickets of $15 will be donated to Filipinos United for Palestine. No one turned away for lack of funds (NOTAFLOF).
Purchase your tickets here!
More About the Event
6:30 doors open
7:00 Talk
8:00 refreshments + cash bar
8:30 performance
On Saturday January 25th, 2025, Wet Sounds: feminist + queer music practices in the polycrisis presents a performance and conversation with PANTAYO. The second guest in the series hosted by Musagetes in Guelph, Pantayo are queer Filipinx kulintang gong punks based in Tkaronto, Canada. The ensemble combines traditional Kulintang music from the Philippines with contemporary influences and experimental sounds derived from their experiences as queer diasporic Filipinxs on Turtle Island.
More About the Series
Wet Sounds is a quarterly arts series that presents conversations and performances centring the intersections of feminist and queer musicians’ academic work, artistic practice, and collaborations in the polycrisis. This series will examine notions of grief, ritual, queerness, pleasure, land, embodiment, colonialisms, decay, noise, and sound. Wet Sounds will ask how artists see their practice as impacted by or responding to the interconnected crises unfolding around us—climate chaos, genocide, fascism, an erosion of democracy, and multiple sites of oppression and resistance.

Book Launch—Soundin’ Canaan: Black Canadian Poetry, Music, and Citizenship, by Paul db Watkins
2025-02-06 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Vancouver) | The Vault Cafe, 499 Wallace Street, Nanaimo, BC, Canada
We are pleased to announce the initial book launch for Soundin’ Canaan: Black Canadian Poetry, Music, and Citizenship, by Improvising Futures team member, Paul db Watkins on Thursday, February 6, at 7:00 PM (PST).

The event will take place in person at The Vault Café, (499 Wallace Street, Nanaimo, BC). The book launch is by donation (5$ suggested).

Learn more about the book and pre-order by following this link!

More About the Event:
This initial book launch will feature poet and musician Sonnet L’Abbé (Sonnet’s Shakespeare) and Nanaimo Poet Laureate Neil Surkan (Unbecoming). The author will also be performing remixed versions of sections from the book.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the readings will run from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m.
More About the Book:
Part exploration of a key group of Black Canadian poets, part literary, cultural, and musical history, Soundin’ Canaan demonstrates how music in Black Canadian poetry is not solely aesthetic, but a form of social, ethical, and political expression.
Soundin’ Canaan refers to the code name often used for Canada during the Black migration to Canada. The book analyzes the contributions of key Black Canadian poets, including their poetic styles and their performances. The book has several key objectives, including recuperating the collision of the historical and the Biblically derived figure of Canaan, the promised land of freedom and security for an African American population seeking to leave the shackles of slavery behind and the northern terminus of the underground railroad. Centering around the poetry of George Elliott Clarke, Dionne Brand, M. NourbeSe Philip, Wayde Compton, and rapper K’naan, it delves into how these poets draw inspiration from African American and Afro-diasporic musical genres, such as blues, jazz, reggae and dub, hip-hop, and remix, to reshape the notions of identity and citizenship. Soundin’ Canaan asks: what does Canadian citizenship sound like, especially when voiced by Black Canadian poets who embrace a fluid and multicultural form of citizenship that moves between local and global spaces, much like music does?
More About the Presenter:
Paul db Watkins is a Professor of English at Vancouver Island University. He is also a research team member with the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI). He has published widely on multiculturalism, hip-hop, Canadian poetry, jazz, DJ culture, and improvisation. Under his DJ alias, DJ Techné, he has completed several DJ projects that explore the spaces between poetry, hip-hop, and jazz.

Sam Newsome—The Popeye Effect: Unlocking the Artist's Power to Transcend (talk + solo concert)
2025-02-09 13:00 - 15:00 (America/Toronto) | Silence, 46 Essex Street, Guelph, Ontario, N1H 3K8, Canada
Please join us on Sunday, February 9 at 1:00 PM (ET) for “The Popeye Effect: Unlocking the Artist’s Power to Transcend (talk + solo concert)” with Sam Newsome.

This presentation will take place in person at Silence, 46 Essex Street in Guelph. Tickets are $20/PWYC (available at the door).

About the Event
In this masterclass, we explore the importance of moving beyond our earthly selves to reach our true creative potential when improvising. As artists, our improvisational journeys can take us from the explainable to the unexplainable, from the ordinary to the extraordinary. Using the iconic cartoon character Popeye the Sailor Man as a metaphor, we will discuss what true transcendence looks like in the creative process. We will also delve into how to employ extended techniques and instrument preparations as methods of transcendence, pushing the boundaries of traditional performance. Active participation from fellow musicians is highly encouraged.
About the Artist
Sam Newsome stands as a multifaceted figure in the world of jazz—a saxophonist, music professor, and accomplished writer. In 2023, his artistic endeavors manifested in two duo recordings: Soprano-Logues, a collaborative effort with saxophonist Dave Liebman, and Cosmic Unconsciousness Unplugged, where he joined forces with pianist Jean-Michel Pilc. These releases showcased Newsome’s ability to engage in sonically-rich musical dialogues across different instrumental landscapes. His contributions to the music world have not gone unnoticed. In 2022, Newsome received the prestigious Bronx BRIO Award for Instrumental Music and secured the title of Soprano Saxophonist of the Year in the 14th Annual International Critics Polls. His accolades extend to the 2020 Instant Award in Improvised Music, the 2018 Alpert/Ragdale Prize in Music Composition, the 2016 NYFA Fellowship for Music Composition, and he’s been a consistent nominee for Soprano Saxophonist of the Year by the Jazz Journalist Association over the past five years. Beyond his musical accomplishments, Newsome is a prolific author, having penned two books of personal essays: “Be Inspired, Stay Focused” (2022) and “Life Lessons from the Horn” (2015). In 2023, his piece, “From NoHa to SoBro” was featured in the Bronx Memoir Project Anthology, VII. Newsome’s avant-garde approach, particularly in the realm of prepared saxophone, has positioned him as a sought-after player in New York’s improvised music scene. His innovative voice has resonated in collaborations with notable artists such as Elliot Sharpe, William Parker, Fay Victor, Daniel Carter, Joe Morris, and Dave Liebman. Through his diverse talents and contributions, Sam Newsome continues to shape and enrich the landscape of contemporary jazz.

Thinking Spaces: Andrew Goldman, "The Cognition of Musical Improvisation: Theories and Experiments"
2025-02-11 12:00 - 13:30 (America/Toronto) | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join us on Tuesday, February 11 at 12:00 PM (ET) for Thinking Spaces: “The Cognition of Musical Improvisation: Theories and Experiments” with Andrew Goldman.

This presentation will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph. As always, our Thinking Spaces events are free!
To attend the talk, RSVP via our Google Forms.
More About this Workshop:
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.
More About the Presenter:
Andrew Goldman is a music theorist and cognitive scientist, and is currently Assistant Professor in Music Theory and Cognitive Science at Indiana University, where he also directs IU’s Music and Mind Lab. He received his PhD in 2015 at the Centre for Music and Science at the University of Cambridge. He was in the inaugural cohort of Presidential Scholars in Society and Neuroscience at Columbia University, and also held a postdoctoral position with the Music, Cognition, and the Brain initiative at Western University before joining the faculty at Indiana University.
His research considers how we can (and cannot) use scientific methods to learn about musical perception and cognition in theory, and he also designs and conducts behavioral and neuroscientific experiments on music perception and cognition. Goldman’s research has focused on improvisation in music and dance, and more recent work has addressed the perception of musical form, melodic contour, metrical perception, and embodiment in music. His work has been published in both music and psychology journals, and has been presented at national and international conferences including the Society for Music Theory, the International Conference for Music Perception and Cognition, and the American Psychological Association. Goldman is also a pianist and composer. His original musical, “Science! The Musical” provides an alternate platform to explore the worlds of music and science. Musical numbers include “The Interdisciplinary Rag,” “The Real World,” “Publish or Perish,” and more!

To attend the talk, RSVP via our Google Forms.

[Cancelled due to Inclement Weather] | hakosalo_tuohino: “How a Sound Follows Another” (Talk @ ImprovLab)
2025-02-13 10:00 - 11:30 (America/Toronto) | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
* Cancelled due to inclement weather *
Please join us on Thursday, February 13 at 10:00 AM (ET) for a public talk: “How a Sound Follows Another” with hakosalo_tuohino.

This presentation will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph. This is a free event.
A free performance by the duo will follow at 3:30 PM at Silence, 46 Essex Street, Guelph, ON.
More About this Performance:
In this discussion, we’ll shed light on the art-theoretical approaches of the hakosalo_tuhino duo. Our improvised music comes from the archaic kantele playing tradition, where you are in the music instead of making it. Drawing from the deep listening method, our sonic expression is a spatial and temporal experience that cannot be recorded and repeated.
Our relationship with musical transitions is two-fold: we understand the power of slow transitions when creating our musical structures, but at the same time they inevitably set up new boundaries and classifications. How can we compose together with each other and the audience without creating new structures and boundaries?
With our music, we aim for sonic freedom, where we break away from the western understanding of music and our musical backgrounds. The drone has a special role in our music, because we think of it as a purely experiential unit where compositional logic breaks down. At the end there is only sound, a resonance.
On the other hand, the importance of silence is even greater: you must be quiet in order to listen. What will thus remain of our musical deconstruction?
More About the Performers:
hakosalo_tuohino
(duo for kantele and computer from Finland)
CHANGE FROM DOING TO BEING
What happens when ancient traditions collide with experimental electronic
music?

The duo for kantele and computer consists of folk musician Osmo Hakosalo and sound artist Jussi Tuohino.
The Finnish ancient traditional instrument kantele is estimated to be 1500 years old and belongs to the Baltic zither family. The tradition of playing kantele relies heavily on archaic, improvisational techniques where kantele is seen as a vehicle, rather than a musical instrument, to travel to the essence of music transferring the experience from making music into being in it. Furthermore, the prepared kantele and immersive spatialized digital expression will transform the delicate kantele sonicality into the modern art of electroacoustic music.
In this journey one reaches other states of consciousness, and the total communication between the musicians and their dedication provides a fascinating sonic landscape to the audience.
hakosalo_tuohino duo takes the sonic properties of kantele still many steps further: from the acoustic sound immersive soundscapes are built in an intuitive and open-ended fashion. With both performers having varied musical backgrounds in folk, classical, jazz, and electronic music, the duo is able to perform without preset plans regarding musical form and microscale decisions concerning sound material. Kantele-playing is traditionally improvised, and an interesting confluence to freeform electroacoustic live performance can easily be made.
The duo builds their soundscapes up from live kantele sound, which is the only sound source, and performs with specialized surround sound systems to help the performers and audience to reach their immersive sonic goals.
Duo was formed in January 2024, but it has been able to gain success quickly, with performances already in Finland, Japan, Lithuania and Canada. Duo has also prepared a commission piece for a Swedish modern music ensemble Elefantöra. The piece had a premiere in Stockholm in October 2024 and was performed in Nordic Music Days in Glasgow in November 2024.
In addition, the duo started a collaboration with a Japanese film/media artist Keitaro Oshima for a joint multimedia piece in the fall of 2024. The duo is also working in academia with Jussi Tuohino leading the music technology program in Oulu University of Applied Sciences and Osmo Hakosalo working in the same university’s research program of Art Innovations.
For more info, please visit our web page www.hakosalotuohino.com

[Cancelled due to Inclement Weather] | hakosalo_tuohino: "How a Sound Follows Another" (Performance @ Silence)
2025-02-13 15:30 - 16:30 (America/Toronto) | Silence, 46 Essex Street, Guelph, Ontario, N1H 3K8, Canada
* Cancelled due to Inclement Weather *
Please join us on Thursday, February 13 at 3:30 PM (ET) for a performance of “How a Sound Follows Another” with hakosalo_tuohino.

This presentation will take place in person at Silence, 46 Essex Street, Guelph, Ontario.
This is a free event that follows the duo’s talk at the University of Guelph.
More About this Performance:
This performance of “How a Sound Follows Another” follows-up on the duo’s talk at the University of Guelph.
In this performance, hakosalo_tuohino will demonstrate their art-theoretical approaches.
In their own words:
Our improvised music comes from the archaic kantele playing tradition, where you are in the music instead of making it. Drawing from the deep listening method, our sonic expression is a spatial and temporal experience that cannot be recorded and repeated.
Our relationship with musical transitions is two-fold: we understand the power of slow transitions when creating our musical structures, but at the same time they inevitably set up new boundaries and classifications. How can we compose together with each other and the audience without creating new structures and boundaries?
With our music, we aim for sonic freedom, where we break away from the western understanding of music and our musical backgrounds. The drone has a special role in our music, because we think of it as a purely experiential unit where compositional logic breaks down. At the end there is only sound, a resonance.
On the other hand, the importance of silence is even greater: you must be quiet in order to listen. What will thus remain of our musical deconstruction?
More About the Performers:
hakosalo_tuohino
duo for kantele and computer from Finland
CHANGE FROM DOING TO BEING
What happens when ancient traditions collide with experimental electronic
music?

The duo for kantele and computer consists of folk musician Osmo Hakosalo and sound artist Jussi Tuohino.
The Finnish ancient traditional instrument kantele is estimated to be 1500 years old and belongs to the Baltic zither family. The tradition of playing kantele relies heavily on archaic, improvisational techniques where kantele is seen as a vehicle, rather than a musical instrument, to travel to the essence of music transferring the experience from making music into being in it. Furthermore, the prepared kantele and immersive spatialized digital expression will transform the delicate kantele sonicality into the modern art of electroacoustic music.
In this journey one reaches other states of consciousness, and the total communication between the musicians and their dedication provides a fascinating sonic landscape to the audience.
hakosalo_tuohino duo takes the sonic properties of kantele still many steps further: from the acoustic sound immersive soundscapes are built in an intuitive and open-ended fashion. With both performers having varied musical backgrounds in folk, classical, jazz, and electronic music, the duo is able to perform without preset plans regarding musical form and microscale decisions concerning sound material. Kantele-playing is traditionally improvised, and an interesting confluence to freeform electroacoustic live performance can easily be made.
The duo builds their soundscapes up from live kantele sound, which is the only sound source, and performs with specialized surround sound systems to help the performers and audience to reach their immersive sonic goals.
Duo was formed in January 2024, but it has been able to gain success quickly, with performances already in Finland, Japan, Lithuania and Canada. Duo has also prepared a commission piece for a Swedish modern music ensemble Elefantöra. The piece had a premiere in Stockholm in October 2024 and was performed in Nordic Music Days in Glasgow in November 2024.
In addition, the duo started a collaboration with a Japanese film/media artist Keitaro Oshima for a joint multimedia piece in the fall of 2024. The duo is also working in academia with Jussi Tuohino leading the music technology program in Oulu University of Applied Sciences and Osmo Hakosalo working in the same university’s research program of Art Innovations.
For more info, please visit our web page www.hakosalotuohino.com

IBPOC ARTISTS NETWORK TOUR: FROM WORDS TO ACTION—Newton Moraes and Meryem Alaoui
2025-02-28 19:30 - 21:30 (America/Toronto) | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join Guelph Dance and the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation on February 28, 2025 at 7:30 PM (ET) for an evening of dance with Newton Moraes and Meryem Alaoui at ImprovLab. The program features two solo works by these fantastic artists.
Tickets: $10 or $20 (sliding scale, please choose the option that best suits your needs).
‘My Dance is Not a Hobby’ by Newton Moraes
“Dance is far more than a hobby for me—it’s a profound expression of my identity, personal journey, and deep connection to the world around me, informed by African Brazilian Spirituality and the love of those who shaped my path. At 63, I embrace dance as a powerful medium to explore my LGBTQ identity, navigate my struggles, and celebrate life’s transformative experiences, honoring both my past and present. Guided by legendary mentors and fueled by the unwavering love of my partner, my solo performances honor resilience, connection, and the transformative power of dance.” – Newton Moraes
Choreographer/Dancer: Newton Moraes
Lighting Designer: Eliajah Stefura
Stage Manager: Sharon DiGenova
Music: Iyo, Strobe and Gleymdu.
Photo (top left) by Claire Whitaker
‘Sand Body’ by Meryem Alaoui
“I see you. You see me. We see objects and their shapes; the marks and traces of the object. We listen, make decisions and feel our surroundings. Perhaps we also feel the spaces between us. We share a sonic, visual and textural experience, together, for a few moments here and now.” – Meryem Alaoui
Choreographer & Performer: Meryem Alaoui
Text: Meryem Alaoui and Christopher Willes
Recording of text: Jonathan Adjemian
Photo (top right) by Frederic Chais
About the Artists
Newton Moraes is a celebrated choreographer and founder of Newton Moraes Dance Theatre. Born in Brazil, he has brought his vibrant, cross-cultural dance styles to Canada and beyond. Moraes’ work is deeply influenced by his Brazilian roots and explores themes of identity, migration, and the human condition. He has performed and choreographed internationally, earning acclaim for his dynamic and expressive pieces. Over the past 27 years, Moraes has contributed significantly to the dance community through performances, tours, and workshops in cities such as Toronto, Montreal, and internationally. His passion for dance continues to inspire audiences and dancers alike, solidifying his place as a pivotal figure in contemporary dance.
Newton Moraes Dance Theatre is a company dedicated to the creation, performance and production of contemporary dance works to explore, maintain and develop the links between the arts of Canada and Latin America. Newton Moraes Dance Theatre had toured in Canada and internationally to public and critical acclaim. NMDT has received support over the years from Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, Laidlaw Foundation, Goethe Institute Toronto, Foreign Affair Canada, Dance Ontario Association, Polo da Zona Norte in Sao Paulo/Brazil. Newton Moraes Dance Theatre‘s vision is to inspire and provide role models for young people. Support dance artists who work with dance forms of the Latin American Diaspora in Canada and bring together dance professionals who preserve the history and traditions of Latin America and who foster an appreciation of its heritage. Increase the visibility of the sector, and improve understanding by disseminating information. Raise the level of critical discourse concerning the practice of dance forms of the Latin America diaspora in Canada. This will include creating an awareness of the complexity of Latin American dance as concept and encouraging closer critical engagement with the work of practitioners. Also to provide an environment to support artists in the creation of innovative forms of artistic expression to reach the widest possible audience and to be cultural ambassadors, nationally and internationally.
Meryem Alaoui is a dancer and choreographer from Morocco based in Toronto. Founder and co-artistic director of Jasad Dance Projects, her work is at the intersection of somatic research using movement and voice, and the exploration of contemporaneity through the reclamation of embodied performance practices, dances and knowledge from her culture as a Moroccan diasporic dance artist. A graduate of the School of Toronto Dance Theatre, she has performed in numerous projects led by choreographers such as Amanda Acorn, Peggy Baker, Antony Hamilton and Karen Kaeja. She has shared her choreographic work nationally and internationally, notably in Ontario, Quebec and Morocco. A certified Body-Mind Centering® Somatic Movement Educator, Meryem also enjoys being involved in community and arts-education projects.

This presentation is courtesy of IBPOC ARTISTS NETWORK TOUR: FROM WORDS TO ACTION, initiated by wind in the leaves collective.

Thinking Spaces: Fron Reilly, “Acoustic Innovation: Is There Anything Left to Invent?”
2025-03-04 12:00 - 13:30 (America/Toronto) | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join us on Tuesday, March 4 at 12:00 PM (ET) for Thinking Spaces: “Acoustic Innovation: Is There Anything Left to Invent?” with Fron Reilly—“Is there still room for Innovative Design in the field of purely acoustic musical instruments in an age of digitization?”

This presentation will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph. As always, our Thinking Spaces events are free!
To attend the talk, RSVP via our Google Forms.
More About this Presentation:
In his talk/workshop, Fron Reilly will showcase his latest musical invention—the fron2, a ten-string rotating bowed zither—while sharing the story behind its creation. He’ll also explore the acoustics behind its distinctive sound and explain what sets it apart from electronically generated tones. Afterwards, audience members are invited to join a live improv session. Bring your instrument!
More About the Presenter:

Fron Reilly is a maker, designer, builder, and inventor living in Guelph. He holds a BSc in physics from the University of Waterloo. Now retired, he has worked in many fields including teaching, industrial automation, and electronic transformer design. In addition, he has always been and remains busy in his workshop creating things that work, including wooden sculptural clock mechanisms, musical instruments, kinetic sculptures, stirling engines, and sundials. You can see many of his innovative instruments in action on his YouTube channel, @fronreilly4787, which has garnered over two million views.

To attend the talk, RSVP via our Google Forms.

Immersive Soundscape Music
2025-03-25 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Toronto) | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join us on Tuesday, March 25 at 7:00 PM (ET) for “Immersive Soundscape Music” with compositions by Andra McCartney and Darren Copeland.

This presentation will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph. The event is free and open to everybody!
This event celebrates sound works by Andra McCartney (1955-2019) and Darren Copeland (1968-) that will be interpreted for multi-channel listening in a performance by Darren Copeland using the NAISA Spatialization System. Thematically the pieces on the show explore movement and travel from different personal perspectives and using contrasting approaches to sound creation.
This immersive event is co-presented by the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation and the School of Fine Art and Music at the University of Guelph.
More About the Event
Andra McCartney’s radio piece Learning to Walk is an experimental radio story made in 2004 about traumatic memory, love, and walking. Her piece Waiting games and widespread smoke (feat. Narcy) from 2018 is based on a train trip from Toronto to Vancouver reflecting on the widespread smoke and freight delays that structured it during the 2018 fires prevalent in Western Canada at the time.
Darren Copeland’s works on the program combine acousmatic and soundscape approaches to sound creation. His piece …while working and walking is based on exploring his new rural home on foot back in 2015 and while cleaning up and removing old building structures. His piece On Schedule from 2003 transforms a soundscape recording from the World Soundscape Project collection at Simon Fraser University. Synthetic sounds are also generated by plotting the times of station stops on the multi-day route from London Waterloo to Moskva Byelorusski.
More About the Composers
Andra McCartney was a sound artist, scholar and composer that led public SOUNDwalks, created gallery installations, made soundscape recordings, performances and radio works. She taught at Concordia University and published articles with Organised Sound, Leonardo Music Journal, Perspectives of New Music, Musicworks and organized the conference In and Out of the Sound Studio.
Darren Copeland is a Canadian sound artist who has been active since 1985 and currently lives on a rural property outside of South River, Ontario. His fixed-media soundscape and electroacoustic compositions are published by empreintes DIGITALes and have been premiered in concerts by Akousma Festival, The Sounds Like Festival and New Music Edmonton among many others. He is the founding and current Artistic Director for New Adventures in Sound Art (NAISA) in South River.
Copeland’s work with multichannel spatialization took focus with residencies in Europe and Canada from 1999 to 2001 where he facilitated the exploration of automated octaphonic spatialization using the Richmond Sound Design Audiobox and ABControl diffusion software. In 2006 he developed a performance-oriented system using the Polhemus Patriot as a gestural controller along with customized Max programming by Benjamin Thigpen. Later in 2011 he explored making spatialization an ensemble practice by adding two more spatialization performers that manually manipulate directional loudspeakers.

Turntable Trio: Maria Chavez, Mariam Rezaei, Evicshen—Wet Sounds #3
2025-03-30 18:30 - 22:00 (America/Toronto) | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join IICSI and Musagetes on Sunday, March 30 at 7:00 PM (ET) for Wet Sounds #3: Turntable Trio.

This presentation will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph.
Suggested PWYC tickets of $15 will be donated TBD.
No one turned away for lack of funds (NOTAFLOF).
Purchase your tickets here!
More About the Event
On Sunday March 30th, 2025, Wet Sounds: feminist + queer music practices in the polycrisis, presents a performance and conversation with female pioneers of new turntablism, Turntable Trio—Maria Chavez, Mariam Rezaei, and Evicshen (Victoria Shen).
Premiered at Counterflows festival in Glasgow and Rewire in The Hague in April 2023, the project represents the first time three female turntablists of colour have come together in this way. The trio bring together elements of musique concrète, free improvisation, noise, techno and hip-hop with instrument building and modification. Each artist has a wildly different approach to turntablism. Among the techniques deployed will be skratching, beatjuggling, sampling and looping, while the technologies will include double needle head shells and acrylic needle nails. The trio’s compositional aesthetics weave through sound sculpture, maximalism/minimalism and sonic destruction. Together, they will show that New Turntablism is beyond technique, genre or compositional theory; it’s about the unknown.
The event launches with a conversation with the artists around queer and feminist performance and practice in the polycrisis.
More About the Artists
Maria Chavez (she/her) is an abstract turntablist, sound artist and DJ, renowned for repurposing broken vinyl into sonic sculptures that can sometimes be compared to improvised musique concrète pieces, or, conceptually, improvised sonic sculpture sessions. Her recital style approach focuses on the various forms of Deep Listening, a practice developed by her mentor Pauline Oliveros. Coincidence, chance and failure are themes that run through her projects. Chavez’s 2012 book on abstract turntablism, Of Technique: Chance Procedures on Turntable, written and illustrated by Maria, was the first book on abstract turntablism and has developed a reputation as both an academic resource and a foundational text for a new generation of turntablists. Born in Lima, Peru, Chavez is based in New York.
Evicshen is the nom de guerre of San Francisco-based sound artist, experimental music performer, and inventor Victoria Shen (she/her). Shen’s sound practice is concerned with the materiality/physicality of sound and its relationship to the human body. Her music features analogue modular synthesizers, vinyl/resin records, and self-built electronics. Shen’s music eschews conventions in harmony and rhythm in favour of extreme textures and gestural tones. Notable for her Needle Nails, Shen uses modified acrylic fingernails with embedded turntable needles, allowing her to play up to five grooves of a record at once. Her DIY approach extends to hand-made resin records embedded with found materials. Each piece functions not only as playable music media but a unique art object.
Mariam Rezaei (she/her) is a multi-award winning composer, turntablist and performer. She previously led experimental arts project TOPH, TUSK FRINGE and TUSK NORTH, and in November 2022, she received the Paul Hamlyn Foundation #AwardsForArtists, in recognition of her contribution to music composition. Her music has recently been described as ‘genuinely ground-breaking’ (London Jazz News 2022) and ‘high-velocity sonic surrealism’ (4* The Guardian 2022). Recent release BOWN (Heat Crimes) charted no.6 in The Wire and no10 in The Quietus’ best albums of 2023. Recent performances include a three-day residency at Café Oto, soloist with Frankfurt Radio Orchestra for the closing concert at IM Darmstadt 2023, soloist with London Sinfonietta at HCMF 2023 and Taipei Biennial 2023 in a quartet with DJ Sniff, Rex Chen and DJ SlowPitchSound.
Turntable Trio is the third guest in the Wet Sounds series hosted by Musagetes in Guelph, co-presented by the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI) at their ImprovLab venue.
Suggested PWYC tickets of $15 will be donated TBD
No one turned away for lack of funds (NOTAFLOF)
Improv Lab at the University of Guelph
MacKinnon Building, Room 108
Masks will be available; we encourage guests to stay home if they’re not feeling well. Please reduce the use of scented products (e.g. perfume, cologne) for this event.
More About the Series
Wet Sounds is a quarterly arts series that presents conversations and performances centring the intersections of feminist and queer musicians’ academic work, artistic practice, and collaborations in the polycrisis. This series will examine notions of grief, ritual, queerness, pleasure, land, embodiment, colonialisms, decay, noise, and sound. Wet Sounds will ask how artists see their practice as impacted by or responding to the interconnected crises unfolding around us—climate chaos, genocide, fascism, an erosion of democracy, and multiple sites of oppression and resistance.

Sounds Like Us 2.0 | Final Showcase
2025-04-02 14:30 - 16:00 (America/Toronto) | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join us on Wednesday, April 2 at 2:30 PM (ET) for “Sounds Like Us 2.0 | Final Showcase” with Campus Friends Community Members and workshop facilitators jashen edwards and Valentina Morelli.
Join us in celebrating the amazing work Campus Friends students have done this semester. Come listen to their original sound explorations, musical improvisations, and extended compositions, as well as their reflections and insights on the creative works they’ll be sharing.
This presentation will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph. The event is FREE and open to everybody!
More About the Event
Sounds Like Us—presented by the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI) and the Campus Friends (CF) program—brings professional musicians into collaboration with community members of varying developmental and physical needs through a series of fun and playful improvisation-based workshops. This season facilitators include postdoctoral fellow jashen edwards, PhD student Joe Sorbara, and community musician special guest, Valentina Morelli.
Sounds Like Us draws upon IICSI’s 12+ years of co-running “Play Who You Are” workshops in partnership with KidsAbility Centre for Child Development, a research-outreach project that has offered all participants—from new musicians to the very experienced; from music aficionados and scholars to first-time listeners—revelations about the links between music and community-making, improvisation and individual/community well-being, sound and self-expression. (And indeed, Sounds Like Us 2.0 includes alumni from Campus Friends and Play Who You Are!) This ongoing research has investigated and demonstrated the effectiveness of improvisation as a means of empowering and animating special needs youth. Researchers have documented and analyzed the myriad relationships between specific improvisational activities and their effects on, for example, socialization, self-esteem, physical coordination, and mental acuity.
As part of IICSI’s ongoing research into Improvisation, Wellbeing, and the Social Determinants of Health, Sounds Like Us will help us continue investigating how community arts participation impacts social connectivity and equitable participation in society. We have seen how improvisation builds resiliency, helps develop key skills, promotes self-expression and leads to greater feelings of belonging for participants.
Please join us to celebrate a semester of music and community making at this final public concert for the Sounds Like Us program. Feel free to spread the word to others who might be interested.

Journée d’étude: Improvisation, Pedagogy, and Cocreative Worldmaking
2025-04-03 09:00 - 17:30 (America/Toronto) | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, 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 of The Improviser’s Classroom: Pedagogies for Cocreative Worldmaking, the new collection edited by Daniel Fischlin and Mark Lomanno and published through Temple University Press.

Demonstrating how improvisation can inform scenes of teaching and learning, The Improviser’s Classroom also outlines how improvisatory techniques offer powerful, if not vital, tools for producing connection, creativity, accompaniment, reciprocity, meaningful revelation, and lifelong curiosity. This event will explore the ideas brought up in this book through several offerings, including:
• presentations by the Critical Studies in Improvisation graduate program’s newest cohort: Simon Flint, Mark Leroy, Emma Bortolon-Vettor, and Georgia Simms
• the book launch for The Improviser’s Classroom: Pedagogies for Cocreative Worldmaking, featuring a conversation with jashen edwards, Daniel Fischlin, Mark Lomanno, and Carey West
• a keynote by David L. Clark, featuring improvised musical responses by annais linares and Germaine Liu
• closing reflections by Fred Moten, professor of performance studies and comparative literature at New York University
Find the full schedule for the day’s events below:
9:00-9:30 AM—Coffee and Gathering
9:30-9:45 AM—Welcome (IICSI)
9:45-11:45 AM—IMPR 6010/6410 Student Presentations on Emergent/Embodied Teaching Philosophies and Multidisciplinary Approaches to Improvisation; moderated by jashen edwards and Daniel Fischlin;
11:45 AM-1:00 PM—Lunch Break
1:00-2:30 PM—Book Launch: The Improviser’s Classroom: Pedagogies for Cocreative Worldmaking (“Insubordinate Spaces” series edited by George Lipsitz; Temple UP, Edited by Daniel Fischlin and Mark Lomanno; featuring contributors Carey West and jashen edwards)
2:30-2:45 PM—Coffee Break
2:45-4:15 PM—Keynote David L. Clark “I do not know how to teach: scenes from a life, made up” with improvised musical response from annaïs linares and Germaine Liu. Moderated by Daniel Fischlin.
4:15-4:30 PM—Break
4:30-5:15 PM—Fred Moten (Closing Reflections). Moderated by Mark Lomanno.
6:00 PM—Downtown Gathering for Food and Conversation – TBA

Why Arts Matter Research Speaker Series: Technology
2025-04-24 16:00 - 17:30 (America/Toronto) | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join us on Thursday, April 24 at 4:00 PM (ET) for Technology, the third and final event of the Winter 2024 Why Arts Matter Research Speaker Series.
This presentation will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph. The event is free, although seating is limited. Reserve your spot here!

More About the Event
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.
This series will be video recorded for later distribution. Following the panel, audience members can engage in a Q&A session. This series will be video recorded for later distribution. Audience members will not be on camera, however will be asked to sign a release for their voice to be included in the recording if they choose to ask a question.
More About the Series
The “Why Arts Matter” research speaker series is hosted by the College of Arts in partnership with the International Institute for Critical Studies and Improvisation (IICSI), and explores the intersection of disciplines to address individual experience, social life, and culture. This series highlights the importance of the arts in shaping our understanding of the world.
For more information, follow this link.

Listening in the Dark: equilibrium
2025-05-04 12:00 - 15:00 (America/Toronto) | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join us on Sunday, May 4 at 12:00 PM (ET) for a “Listening in the Dark: equilibrium”—part of the 2025 ArtsEverywhere Festival.
This presentation will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph. The event is free and open to everybody!

More About the Workshop

If we do not live near the ocean are we separate from it? Some would say this is a planet of water with land interruptions. If we listen down into the ground to the tributaries that connect to great lakes, the brackish waterways towards the ocean, can we listen with the ocean? If we take a deep breath, are we sharing the breath of cetaceans? The deep ocean, this life-giving and complex multi-being body of water, is described as unknowable. In listening with the ocean we may discover something as yet unknown.
In this three-hour gathering with Anne Bourne, participation stems from Deep Listening practice and the Sonic text scores of Pauline Oliveros, with standing by artist/osteopath Lesley Greco, as well as sound interventions by composer/percussionist Germaine Liu. The practice of Deep Listening offers embodied listening, extreme slow walk, attunement, and collective creative expression.
The experience invokes notions of interstitial places of rest, sonic presence, listening and equilibrium in darkness. No experience necessary. The intention is to create a choral sound field in a particular moment in time, with movement influenced by the temporality of the wave patterns of water. The workshop invites a deeper attunement to each other, ourselves, our bodies, and the more-than-human by expanding sensory listening imagination. “In listening within my field recordings I propose an environmental attunement experience leading towards the algorithmic text score, The Tuning Meditation by Pauline Oliveros when we sing!,” explains artist Anne Bourne. “It is transmitted aurally. I invite participants to listen, and find equilibrium within the surroundings.”

More About the Festival
The ArtsEverywhere Festival is the place where conversations, ideas, and artistic experiments presented on ArtsEverywhere.ca come alive in our home community of Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
Over four days, the festival offers lectures, conversations, music, artistic performances, circle gatherings, literary readings, exhibitions, and much more. As the publisher of ArtsEverywhere.ca, Musagetes presents the festival with support from many community partners.

the space between (Guelph Dance Festival—In the Lab)
2025-05-31 16:00 - 17:00 (America/Toronto) | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join us on Saturday, May 31 at 4:00 PM (ET) for the space between, part of the 2025 Guelph Dance Festival!
This presentation will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph. Tickets are $15 (discounted) or $25. Purchase your tickets here.
More About the Event
the space between is a research-based creation that explores the intersection between sacred geometry (the transcultural belief that the universe is based on geometric principles such as the Golden Mean and double helix) and our relationship to the embodiment of the unseen and ‘déjà là’ (‘already there’).
the space between navigates the fine line between artistic, scientific and intuitive practices. I am gathering artists with the intention to bring approachable and friendly ways of experiencing the unseen (but felt) to the Guelph Dance community.
I wish to cultivate a reciprocal offering with the space between. I want to offer experiences that deepen wonder and inspire sharing. In this time of collective unhinging and chaos, it is my hope that this creation will offer a window into our human bodies as a site for reconnection and transformation.
CHOREOGRPAHY
Katie Ewald
PERFORMERS
Andrea Nann, Kevin O’Connor, Julia Garlisi, Katie Ewald
DRAMATURGICAL SUPPORT
Coman Poon
OUTSIDE EYE
Ame Henderson
EMOTIONAL SUPPORT
Leslie Fisher
BREATH-WORK SUPPORT
Tiago Ferreira
ABOUT THE CHOREOGRAPHER
Katie Ewald lived and worked as a dancer in Montréal for fifteen years. Spliced inside that time she lived in Brussels, Belgium and went to the dance school P.A.R.T.S., which formed her as an artist.
She dedicated her career to working with avant-garde/conceptual artists and choreographers like: Ame Henderson/Public Recordings, Martin Bélanger/LAPS, k.g. Guttman, Lin Snelling, Chanti Wadge, Shary Boyle, Daniel Léveillé Danse and Forced Entertainment.
During her time in Guelph, she worked with Janet Johnson, as well as curated/produced six Short&Sweet shows (Wants&Needs), as well as two Double Time shows for Guelph Dance and Kazoo! Fest.
Currently she is cultivating the dance project the space between, while pursuing her Masters in Spiritual Integrated Psychotherapy and Art Therapy.
ACKNOWLEDEMENTS
Thank you, Asa.
Thank you, sacred geometries and source.
Thank you to all the ancestors before me, whether they be dance, movement, spiritual guidance, mathematician, seeker, believer, helper and healer, and truth teller ancestors, and those working to raise this world in both quiet and obvious ways currently.
the space between is in process. It is an unfinished art work. I would like to thank artist Jenn E. Norton for the inspiration for the space between, and for conversations about our common interests in Chladni plates and sacred geometries, but most importantly for sharing her knowledge and PHD research with us.
the space between has been supported by both the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.

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
2025-06-10 13:00 - 16:00 (America/Toronto) | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, 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, fostering post-humanist and post-anthropocentric thinking through improvisational collaboration with synthetic intelligences. He holds an MFA in Design from the Yale School of Drama, where he was supervised by Wendall Harrington.
Michael’s research proposal is called “Improvnetics: Post-anthropocentric performance and improvisational modes for human-AI play, or: What we talk about when we talk about Intersentient empathy.” It is centred around key questions: How can improvisational practices foster empathy in human-robot and human-AI interactions? What role does performance play in shaping these interactions? And how can we better understand non-human sentience? The primary objectives are to develop a framework for human-robot / human-AI improvised performance that treats each as equals; examine representation of robots beyond language performance; explore potential live interactive performances as mediums for human-robot interaction.
Full Zoom information:
Michael Bergmann Colloquium
Time: Jun 10, 2025 01:00 PM America/Toronto
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/96432136617?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 964 3213 6617
Passcode: [REDACTED]
—
One tap mobile
+15873281099,,96432136617# Canada
+16473744685,,96432136617# Canada
—
Dial by your location
• +1 587 328 1099 Canada
• +1 647 374 4685 Canada
• +1 647 558 0588 Canada
• +1 778 907 2071 Canada
• +1 780 666 0144 Canada
• +1 204 272 7920 Canada
• +1 438 809 7799 Canada
Meeting ID: 964 3213 6617
Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/avLPzK8WY

LITHOPHONICA | CD Release, Concert/Discussion
2025-06-12 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Toronto) | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join us on Thursday, June 12 at 7:00 PM (ET) to celebrate the release of the marvellous, eccentric Lithophonica I & II (Bedrock Resonances) by Gayle Young and James Harley on the Farpoint Recordings label in Dublin.

This CD Release, Concert, and Discussion event will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph. Admission is FREE and open to everybody!
More About LITHOPHONICA
Stones, the instruments featured on this album, are joined by sounds of bells, sticks and Young’s stringed instruments as Harley expands their resonance, shaping sounds through granulation, layering, transposition, delays, and spatialization.
Young’s collection of resonant stones from the shores of Newfoundland, resonant sticks from abandoned beaver lodges in Ontario, played with bells and assorted hardware, are combined with stringed instruments she designed and built.
As hex-bolts are rolled over stones resting on strings, their vibrations cause the strings to sound. Bells resonate with stones, stones rock on strings, and resonant sticks bounce on strings.
Signal processing simultaneously expands the depth and frequency range, adding complexity through layering and subtle shifts over time.
Additional details to follow

Audiopollination Guelph
2025-06-18 19:30 (America/Toronto) | Silence, 46 Essex Street, Guelph, Ontario, N1H 3K8, Canada
Audiopollination Guelph is wrapping up the season with this, its last event before the 3rd annual Audiopollination Marathon in August! Local legends Depression 500 will be closing out an evening of familiar faces and Audiopollination Guelph newcomers alike.
Audiopollination Guelph is devoted to being identity-affirming space for all people, so please come as you are and/or as you desire to be!
Wednesday, June 18th, 2025
Cost: $20/PWYC
Silence (46 Essex Street, Guelph, ON)
Doors Open at 7:30pm | Music Starts at 8pm
Ensemble 1: Em Wright, Claire Whitehead & Benedict Hobson
Ensemble 2: Nick Perri, Thomas Rolf & Ana Platanos
Ensemble 3: Evan Gordon, Monte Fenske & Chelsea Masse
Ensemble 4: Depression 500
Please do your part to keep Audiopollination Guelph scent-free.
We are so thankful for support to the show from the Guelph Arts Council!
Masks will be provided at the door.

SOUNDTRACK TO THE REVOLUTION Book Launch (+ Film Screening)
2025-06-24 18:30 (America/Toronto) | 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 and 1970s.
The book launch, which will include a discussion with writer David Lee (6:30-7:30 p.m.), will be followed by a screening of The Cat in The Bag (1964) [in French with subtitles], one of the founding films of Quebec national cinema with an original score by John Coltrane’s classic quartet.
This event is free and open to all.
Co-presented by The Bookshelf, Véhicule Press, and the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation.
* Eric Fillion is director of the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation and assistant professor at the School of Languages and Literatures at the University of Guelph. He is the author of Distant Stage: Quebec, Brazil, and the Making of Canada’s Cultural Diplomacy. With Sean Mills and Désirée Rochat, he co-edited Statesman of the Piano: Jazz, Race, and History in the Life of Lou Hooper. He lives in Guelph, Ontario.
*Hamilton-based writer David Lee wrote his 2017 University of Guelph dissertation on Toronto improvised music. His other writings include The Battle of the Five Spot: Ornette Coleman and the New York Jazz Field, and with the late pianist Paul Bley, Stopping Time.

Lancement du Livre: SOUNDTRACK TO THE REVOLUTION BY ERIC FILLION
2025-06-26 17:00 - 19:00 (America/Toronto) | Casa del Popolo, 4873 Boul. St Laurent, Montreal, QC, Canada
Mark the date! You are invited to Casa Del Popolo on June 26th for the launch of Soundtrack to the Revolution by Eric Fillion (translated by David Homel). This scintillating book tells the story of Jazz Libre du Québec, a radical experiment in musical activism that reveals the meaningful role that the art of spontaneity played in the turbulent 1960s and 1970s.
Co-presented by Suoni Per Il Popolo Festival and Véhicule Press, the book launch will include a discussion with the writer and artist Joseph Sannicandro. This event is free and open to all.
* Eric Fillion is director of the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation and assistant professor at the School of Languages and Literatures at the University of Guelph. He is the author of Distant Stage: Quebec, Brazil, and the Making of Canada’s Cultural Diplomacy. With Sean Mills and Désirée Rochat, he co-edited Statesman of the Piano: Jazz, Race, and History in the Life of Lou Hooper. He lives in Guelph, Ontario.
* Joseph Sannicandro is a writer and artist based in Montreal, studying creative labor and (un)popular culture, with a particular attention to sound. He is co-founder of the music blog A Closer Listen, and producer of the Sound Propositions podcast, and currently lectures in Media Studies at SUNY Purchase.

MILE Camp Concert: Musique du Moment @ Bell House
2025-08-10 19:00 (America/Toronto) | Bell House, 167 Route 132 Ouest, Percé, QC, G0C 2L0, 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 is a celebrated improviser and composer with numerous awards and nominations on both sides of the border for his work on jazz albums and television scores.
Zoé Jean-Deslauriers is a graduate of McGill University’s Jazz Performance program. The singer and songwriter divides her time between Montreal and the Gaspésie.
Also performing will be Montreal harpist Sarah Pagé. A phenomenal solo performer renowned for her skill in going beyond the conventional tonal palette of the harp, Pagé has also worked in collaboration with musicians spanning several genres, including Lhasa De Sela, Nadah El Shazly, Esmerine, the Barr Brothers, and Land of Kush.
Click here to view the full artist bios!
As with all of our public MILE Camp concerts, this event is free and open to all!

Le dimanche 10 août, à 19h00, à l’historique Bell House (167 Route 132 Ouest à Percé), D.D. Jackson, animateur du Camp Coin-du-Banc en folie et pianiste improvisateur plusieurs fois primé aux Emmy Awards, se produira en duo avec la chanteuse Zoé Jean-Deslauriers.
Actuellement installé dans le New Jersey, D.D. Jackson est un célèbre improvisateur et compositeur qui a reçu de nombreux prix et nominations des deux côtés de la frontière pour son travail sur des albums de jazz et des musiques de télévision.
Zoé Jean-Deslauriers est diplômé du programme d’interprétation jazz de l’Université McGill. La chanteuse et auteure-compositrice partage son temps entre Montréal et la Gaspésie.
La harpiste montréalaise Sarah Pagé se produira également ce soir-là. Interprète solo phénoménale reconnue pour son habileté à aller au-delà de la palette tonale conventionnelle de la harpe, Sarah Pagé a également travaillé en collaboration avec des musiciens de plusieurs genres, dont Lhasa De Sela, Nadah El Shazly, Esmerine, les Barr Brothers et Land of Kush.
Cliquez ici pour voir les biographies complètes des artistes !
Comme tous les concerts publics du camp Coin-du-Banc en folie, cet événement est gratuit et ouvert à tous !

MILE Camp Concert: D. D. Jackson Solo Piano Improvisation
2025-08-11 20:00 (America/Toronto) | 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 Little Jimmy Scott, Laila Biali, Sammy Jackson, David Murray, Dewey Redman, Oliver Lake, James Carter, Milford Graves, Andrew Cyrille, Jack DeJohnette, Hamid Drake, Larnell Lewis, Pheeroan Aklaff, Billy Bang, William Parker, Ugonna Okegwo, James Newton, Jane Bunnett, Mino Cinelu, Mor Thiam, and Kahil el’Zabar, will have space to demonstrate the individual skills that make him a gifted and sought-after collaborator by some of the biggest names in improvised music.
As with all of our public MILE Camp concerts, this event is free and open to all!

Le lundi 11 août, à 20 h, le public aura l’occasion unique d’assister à un spectacle intime de piano solo improvisé par D.D. Jackson au Musée culturel de Coin-du-Banc / Corner of the Beach Cultural Museum (294, route 132 Est à Coin-du-Banc).
Jackson, qui a joué avec des sommités du jazz telles que Little Jimmy Scott, Laila Biali, Sammy Jackson, David Murray, Dewey Redman, Oliver Lake, James Carter, Milford Graves, Andrew Cyrille, Jack DeJohnette, Hamid Drake, Larnell Lewis, Pheeroan Aklaff, Billy Bang, William Parker, Ugonna Okegwo, James Newton, Jane Bunnett, Mino Cinelu, Mor Thiam et Kahil el’Zabar, aura l’occasion de démontrer les compétences individuelles qui font de lui un collaborateur doué et recherché par certains des plus grands noms de la musique improvisée.
Comme tous les concerts publics du camp Coin-du-Banc en folie, cet événement est gratuit et ouvert à tous !

MILE Camp Concert: D.D. Jackson + MILE Camp Participants
2025-08-15 16:00 (America/Toronto) | 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 reflect the collaborative learning and musical exploration that MILE Camp participants have engaged in over the course of their weeklong retreat.
Come and see a renowned bandleader work with a cohesive unit of gifted improvisers who have come together in the beautiful setting of Coin-du-Banc for a week of close contact and shared experiences!
As with all of our public MILE Camp concerts, this event is free and open to all!

Le vendredi 15 août, à 16h00, D.D. Jackson sera rejoint par les participants du camp Coin-du-Banc en folie au Musée culturel de Coin-du-Banc / Corner of the Beach Cultural Museum (294 route 132 Est à Coin-du-Banc) pour notre troisième et dernier concert de l’année ! Cette performance — une grande finale d’improvisation de groupe — reflétera l’apprentissage collaboratif et l’exploration musicale auxquels se sont livrés les participants de Coin-du-Banc en folie au cours de leur retraite d’une semaine.
Venez voir un chef d’orchestre renommé travailler avec une unité cohérente d’improvisateurs doués qui se sont réunis dans le cadre magnifique de Coin-du-Banc pour une semaine de contact étroit et d’expériences partagées !
Comme tous les concerts publics du Camp Coin-du-Banc en folie, cet événement est gratuit et ouvert à tous !

Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium 2025: "Dance with the Music: Movement in the Improvised Arts"
2025-09-11 13:00 - 2025-09-13 11:00 (America/Toronto) | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, 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 interplay of improvised music and dance, this edition of the Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium provides attendees with a great opportunity to engage with world-class academics, dancers, and musicians from Canada and the US, including Heather Cornell, Patricia Nicholson, Julie Richard, and many more. Discussions, performances, artist interventions, and films will all be showcased in IICSI’s state-of-the-art ImprovLab research and performance space.
The colloquium program will also highlight two special sessions by US-based artists Ravish Momin, Val Jeanty, and Ivvy, as part of their week-long residency at the ImprovLab, which will culminate with a performance at the Guelph Jazz Festival. The first of these sessions, by Momin and Jeanty, will feature a discussion and examples of their unique take on global music, an approach that is characterized by the notable absence of traditional instruments and a vision of cultures as dynamic and continuously adaptive. A two-part session, it will address both Haitian culture and Mumbai street bands. The second session will see Ivvy speaking about the aesthetics of FlexDance, demonstrating this artform’s interdependence with music while reflecting on the communities that developed around it as an outgrowth of Black urban/working class culture in Brooklyn.
This catered event is free and open to all, with RSVP via Eventbrite.

For more about this year’s colloquium, including artist bios and headshots, please visit the colloquium page.

cinéma FRANCOPHONE cinema: Le silence de la mer (1949, dir. Jean-Pierre Melville)
2025-09-24 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Toronto) | Quebec
IICSI Director Dr. Eric Fillion is curating a special Francophone Cinema film series at The Bookshelf Cinema (41 Quebec Street, Guelph). These French-language films (with English subtitles) push the boundaries of cinematic convention to explore urgent, timely topics. Intended for Francophiles and cinephiles alike, the fall 2025 program brings together a brilliant constellation of politically minded artists that straddled the line between cinema and literature amid turbulent times (1940s—1960s), voicing their opposition to war, imperialism, and the spectre of fascism while also enacting and articulating their vision for a better, more just and equitable society.
The first film in the series will be Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le silence de la mer (1949). See the film synopsis and specifications below. We hope to see you there at the launch of this exciting monthly film series!

Le Silence de la mer
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Year: 1949
Country: France
Running Time: 87 minutes
Jean-Pierre Melville began his superb feature filmmaking career with this powerful adaptation of an influential underground novel written during the Nazi occupation of France. A cultured, naively idealistic German officer is billeted in the home of a middle-aged man and his grown niece; their response to his presence—their only form of resistance—is complete silence. Constructed with elegant minimalism and shot by the legendary Henri Decaë with hushed eloquence, Le silence de la mer points the way toward Melville’s later films about resistance and the occupation (Leon Morin, Priest; Army of Shadows) yet remains a singularly eerie masterwork in its own right.

Thinking Spaces: Lucy Rupert, Lisa Hirmer, and Christina Kingsbury "Interdisciplinary Improvisation & Ultrasonic Moth Songs"
2025-10-07 12:00 - 13:30 (America/Toronto) | ImprovLab, MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y4, Canada
Please join us on Tuesday, October 7 at 12:00 PM (ET) for Thinking Spaces: “Interdisciplinary Improvisation & Ultrasonic Moth Songs” with Lucy Rupert, Lisa Hirmer, and Christina Kingsbury.

This presentation will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph. As always, our Thinking Spaces events are free and open to all!
More About this Workshop:
In August 2024, dancer Lucy Rupert and musician Ben Finley, along with artists Christina Kingsbury and Lisa Hirmer, collaborated on the interdisciplinary performance Ultra-sonic Moth Songs. Audiences present on that magical summer evening experienced improvised music and movement among the moths at the Moth Garden! Join us as Lucy, Christina, and Lisa reflect on the environmentally inspired multi-disciplinary performance, and the role of improvisation in creating their evocative work.
More About the Presenters:
Lucy Rupert is a dancer, choreographer, art-science researcher, and artistic director of Blue Ceiling dance (founded 2004), through which she has created and produced over three dozen works of contemporary dance and multidisciplinary performance. For the last decade, Lucy has researched and explored the intimate connection between scientific and artistic processes through interviews, artistic creations, and collaborations with scientists.
“heartless”, Lucy’s most recent solo production delving into the moral philosophy of robots, was honoured with three Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations, including Outstanding performance by an individual and Outstanding original choreogprahy.
Lucy’s work has been presented by dance: made in Canada/fait au Canada festival, the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Dusk Dances, Guelph Dance Festival, the Stuttgart International Solo Tanz-Theatre Festival and in unconventional spaces throughout Ontario.
Lucy has performed with noted companies such as Fujiwara Dance Inventions (2010-present), Theatre Rusticle (2001-2017), Nova Dance, Theatre Passe Muraille, Puppetmongers Theatre, Circus Orange, Chartier Danse, Anandam Dance, Sashar Zarif Dance, Free Flow Dance Theatre Company (1995-1999), and many other independent choreographers and creators.
With a Joint Honours BA in Dance and Music from the University of Waterloo, an MA in History from the University of Toronto, Lucy is a lifelong learner, currently studying philosophy through Oxford University’s Continuing Education Department.
Lucy is a mom, a birdwatcher, a citizen scientist, a singer-songwriter and a writer on creative process and dance history. She lives in Toronto with her husband, her son, and a feral cat, in a neighbourhood full of coyotes and old trees.
Lisa Hirmer is an interdisciplinary artist who works in visual media, especially photography; social practice; community collaboration, and sometimes writing. Her work is focussed on collective relationships both in human communities and in human relationships with the more-than-human world. A lot of her recent work wrestles with what it means to be living inside the climate emergency and on the edge of planetary collapse. Her work finds home both in traditional gallery contexts and an expanded field of other public and semi-public spaces and is always created with a keen awareness that multiple realities exist alongside one another.
She has shown her work across Canada and internationally including at Art Gallery of Ontario, Art Gallery of Guelph, University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Cambridge Art Galleries, Art Gallery of Mississauga, Tom Thomson Gallery, Art Windsor-Essex, Doris McCarthy Gallery, Peninsula Arts, CAFKA, Queens Museum, and Flux Factory, among others. She has done artist residencies with Arts House Melbourne, the Santa Fe Art Institute, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, the Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World, KIAC and Camargo Foundation, and was the 2022 Waterfront Toronto Artist in Residence. She has received numerous grants including from the Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts and has a Master of Architecture from the University of Waterloo.
Christina Kingsbury’s (she/her) interdisciplinary art practice is inspired by histories of care and explores themes of place, ecology and inter-species relationships. Her work takes the form of performance, installation and social practice. Christina collaborates regularly with poets, ecologists, artists, choreographers and the public-including ecological public – to create relational works that offer a quiet and radical challenge to the commodification of life. Her work is rooted (often literally) in the Grand River watershed and treaty lands of the Mississauga’s of the Credit and part of her practice works through relationships with land as a settler person. Her solo and collaborative work has been shown as public interventions and in curated exhibitions both locally and internationally.

cinéma FRANCOPHONE cinema: Hiroshima mon amour (dir. Alain Resnais, 1959)
2025-10-15 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Toronto) | The Bookshelf Cinema, 41 Quebec Street, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
IICSI Director Dr. Eric Fillion is curating a special Francophone Cinema film series at The Bookshelf Cinema (41 Quebec Street, Guelph). These French-language films (with English subtitles) push the boundaries of cinematic convention to explore urgent, timely topics. Intended for Francophiles and cinephiles alike, the fall 2025 program brings together a brilliant constellation of politically minded artists that straddled the line between cinema and literature amid turbulent times (1940s—1960s), voicing their opposition to war, imperialism, and the spectre of fascism while also enacting and articulating their vision for a better, more just and equitable society.
The second film in the series will be Alain Resnais’ Hiroshima mon amour (1959). See the film synopsis and specifications below. We hope to see you there for the October edition of this exciting monthly film series!
Hiroshima mon amour
Director: Alain Resnais
Year: 1959
Country: France
Running Time: 90 minutes
A cornerstone of the French New Wave, the first feature from Alain Resnais is one of the most influential films of all time. A French actress (Emmanuelle Riva) and a Japanese architect (Eiji Okada) engage in a brief, intense affair in postwar Hiroshima, their consuming mutual fascination impelling them to exorcise their own scarred memories oflove and suffering. With an innovative flashback structure and an Academy Award–nominated screenplay by novelist Marguerite Duras, Hiroshima mon amour is a moody masterwork that delicately weaves past and present, personal pain and public anguish.
