Improviser-in-Residence Program

In late September 2024, IICSI and Musagetes invited the renowned improvisers and educators Jimmy Weinstein and Lilly Santon to Guelph, Ontario, to continue building their 25+ year project exploring the ways in which improvisation can help build safe creativity environments.

The IICIS/Musagetes 2019-2020 Improviser-in-Residence, Marianne Trudel performs at the 2020 ArtsEverywhere Festival Guelph Lecture On Being.

Each year the IICSI and Musagetes invite an improvising performer(s) to spend time in Guelph-Kitchener-Waterloo to develop a large improvisational community project.

Poet and interdisciplinary artist Kade. L Twist was the 2017 IICSI/Musagetes Improviser-in-Residence.

Montreal sound-artists Jen Reimer and Max Stein were the 2018 IICSI/ Musagetes Improvisers-in-Residence.

Sounding The City – Guelph 003 is the accompanying publication for the IICSI/Musagetes 2018 Improvisers-in-Residence Jen Reimer and Max Stein’s culminating eponymous residency project and exhibition held at the Boarding House Gallery in September 2018.

Excerpts from IICSI’s 2016 Improviser-in-Residence Kid Koala’s conversation with Mark V. Campbell (Ryerson University), during the 2016 Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium.

The Improviser-in-Residence 2015-16 Douglas R. Ewart, Feedback and Reflections report is an amalgamation of the feedback gleaned from the Crepuscule participant surveys and the post-event, Crepuscule team focus-group evaluation.

IICSI is thrilled to present world-renowned scratch DJ, music producer, and award winning graphic novelist Kid Koala as the 2016/17 Improviser-in-Residence.

When Rivers Meet was the culminating performance of Dong-Won Kim’s residency as Improviser-in-Residence (2014) that took place at the River Run Centre in Guelph, Ontario. It featured the Guelph Symphony Orchestra conducted by Judith Yan; the Guelph Youth Jazz Ensemble directed by Brent Rowan; musicians Jeff Bird, Daniel Fischlin, and Lewis Melville; dancer Georgia Simms; and storyteller Ben Grossman. A fully bilingual (English/Korean) 2-CD recording was released in October 2015 by Barcode Free Music and features large-scale group improvisations, traditional storytelling, intercultural musical forms, dance interludes, and even audience participation.