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Project Director; Colloquium Coordinator; Professor, School of English and Theatre Studies, University of Guelph; Artistic Director, The Guelph Jazz Festival

University of Guelph

Dr. Heble is the author or editor of several books, including Landing On The Wrong Note: Jazz, Dissonance, and Critical Practice (2000), The Other Side of Nowhere: Jazz, Improvisation, and Communities in Dialogue (2004), and Rebel Musics: Human Rights, Resistant Sounds, and the Politics of Music Making (2003). Dr. Heble is also a founding editor of the new scholarly online peer-reviewed journal, Critical Studies in Improvisation/Études critiques en improvisation. As the founder and artistic director of the Guelph Jazz Festival, Dr. Heble has jolted the citizens of Guelph into an appreciation of improvised and avant-garde music and delighted aficionados from around the world with his innovative and daring programming. Under his visionary leadership, the Festival – a three-time recipient of the Lieutenant Governor’s Award of the Arts (1997, 2000, 2001) – has achieved a rock-solid international reputation as one of the world’s most inspired and provocative musical events. Dr. Heble is also a pianist, and his first CD, a live concert recording of improvised music with percussionist and ICASP co-investigator, Jesse Stewart, has been released on the IntrepidEar label.

Improvisation is, simply put, being and living this very moment. No one can hide in music, and improvising in music is to be truly in this very moment and being completely yourself, with all your qualities and faults. It is probably the most honest state for a human being to be in.

– John McLaughlin in an interview with Daniel Fischlin.