Short Takes – ImprovNotes November 2019
Do you have great ideas for concert performances that you’d like to curate? Kitchener/Waterloo’s NUMUS Concerts is seeking submissions to its fifth annual Emerging Curator Competition. This competition is open to artists up to 29 years old OR current undergraduate students (of any age) of post-secondary institutions OR individuals (any age) who have completed an undergraduate program within the last 2 years.
NUMUS’s mandate and artistic vision is to foster and encourage new music and contemporary art forms, continually exploring new boundaries and facilitating new artistic ventures.
On November 7 Cinema Paraloeil in Rimouski launched the new CD/booklet anthology “Le Quatuor de Jazz Libre du Québec: Musique-politique Anthologie 1971/1974” with an evening of discussion, music, and a showing of the 1974 Raymond Gervais / Michel Di Torre documentary Ce Soir on Improvise : Nouvelle Musique au Québec. The discussion included Diane Dupuis, who made the anthology’s original recordings, and drummer Jean Guy Poirier, along with a performance by Robert Bastien, Luke Dawson, Alexandre Robichaud and Jean Derome.
The International Society for Improvised Music (ISIM) will hold its 12th Festival / Conference at the University of Melbourne, Australia June 3-7, 2020. The event marks the 40th anniversary of the Jazz and Improvisation Department at the Melbourne Conservatorium and coincides with the Melbourne International Jazz Festival. The ISIM invites presenters to propose musical performances, academic lecture presentations, workshops, or other forms of creative experimentation. For more information, and to apply by the December 6 proposal deadline, visit the ISIM website.
Jazzfest Bonn has launched the JazzBeet Competition, aimed at musicians born on or after January 1st, 1991 who are studying jazz at international universities, or working in permanent trio formations. Ensembles must offer an approximately 40-minute program that includes at least one piece of music inspired by or pertaining to the works of Ludwig van Beethoven. All styles of modern and contemporary Jazz are permitted, and original compositions are a requirement. Application deadline is November 30.
ImprovNotes is written by David Lee (School of English and Theatre Studies, University of Guelph) and assembled and distributed by IICSI administrative assistant Rachel Collins. If you have anything improvisation related that you would like included in the newsletter, please email [email protected].