Improviser-In-Residence 2025 – Marilyn Crispell
As IICSI’s 2025 Improviser-In-Residence, Marilyn Crispell hosted a series of public workshops and performed a collaborative performance at ImprovLab.
Crispell performed as part of a free night of performances in ImprovLab at the University of Guelph on Saturday, October 18th. In her first performance of the evening, at 7 PM, Crispell collaborated with Guelph’s new and as-yet-unnamed Creative Music Orchestra. Having gathered a few times in recent months to explore the compositions and ideas of some of its many members, the orchestra is beyond excited to work with Marilyn Crispell. For this performance, the orchestra members were:
Connor Bennett – saxophones
Matt Brubeck – cello
Matt Endahl – piano, fender rhodes
Jonathan Kay – saxophones, esraj
Kayla Milmine – soprano saxophone
Patrick O’Reilly – guitar
Heather Saumer – trombone
Joe Sorbara – drums, percussion
Tyler Wagler – bass
Claire Whitehead – violin
Em Wright – objects
Mark Zurawinski – drums, percussion
The second set saw Crispell perform in a trio with Joe Sorbara and Jonathan Kay. Sorbara and Kay’s duo project, The Rest, invokes the emergence of compelling sound worlds that draw upon memory in different ways: intriguing and transformative sounds, noises, spaces, places, images, and affects are made present in the moment alongside intentionally cultivated memories including the musics of Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman, and Jimmy Lyons, in addition to original pieces by Kay and Sorbara themselves. All of this means that Kay and Sorbara are as likely to be exploring a sound constellation tripped over in a moment of free improvisation as they are a pre-composed melody, groove, or playful rhythmic puzzle.
This cumulative performance was proceeded by a trio workshop session with Crispell, Sorbara, and Kay from 1-3 PM on Tuesday, October 14th, 2025. Crispell also gave an open improvisation workshop for community members and students from 1-3 PM on Thursday, October 16th, 2025.
During her residency, Marilyn Crispell performed a special solo performance as the closing act at IICSI founder Dr. Ajay Heble’s retirement celebration.
More about the artist
Marilyn Crispell has been a composer and performer of contemporary improvised music since 1978. For ten years, she was a member of the Anthony Braxton Quartet and the Reggie Workman Ensemble. She has performed and recorded extensively as a soloist and with players on the American and international jazz scenes. She has worked with dancers, poets, filmmakers, and visual artists. She also teaches workshops in improvisation. She has been the recipient of three New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship grants, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust composition commission, and a 2025 NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship award.
Internationally renowned for her skill as an improvising pianist, Marilyn Crispell is not to be missed. In the words of The New York Times’ Jon Pareles, “Hearing Marilyn Crispell play solo piano is like monitoring an active volcano. She is one of a very few pianists who rise to the challenge of free jazz.”
