Musagetes and the Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice (ICASP) project usher in the 2012 Improviser-in-Residence program with New York sound artist, Miya Masaoka.

Last year in January, ICASP, in collaborative partnership with Musagetes, entered a new era of community interaction, research communication, and musical dialogue with a yearlong collaboration including a series of dynamic workshops with its first Improviser-in-Residence Jane Bunnett. The program was a resounding success and Calvin McConnell, a music therapist at Homewood Health Centre, described Jane Bunnett’s exuberance and musicianship as “infectious, which gave permission for participants to engage their own ‘inner musician,’ creating an environment of ‘players’ rather than observers and ‘co-creators’ rather than participants.” This year ICASP and Musagetes are happy to introduce Miya Masaoka who will travel from New York to join us as the 2012 Guelph Improviser-in-Residence. In this role, Masaoka will initiate community impact workshops alongside musical performances in order to promote and advocate community-building and diversity through improvisatory practices.

Miya Masaoka, musician, sound artist, and composer, is one of just a handful of musicians who have succeeded in introducing the 17-string Japanese koto zither to the world of avant-garde music. She first came to recognition collaborating with artists as diverse as Pharoah Sanders, Fred Frith and Steve Coleman, and is now regarded as a world-renowned performer. Highly esteemed for her abundantly creative and improvisational technique, and a sensibility that combines experimental Western approaches with the tradition of the koto, Masaoka’s pioneering performance work cannot be easily pigeonholed into any single genre. Her work draws from the collision of tradition with the modern, the rupture of a sonic past with the myriad possibilities of the “new.” Such merging of the past and present is displayed in her performances where electronic triggers allow for additional laser beam “strings” to hover over the koto. Her impressive catalogue of diverse compositions includes work for field recordings, laptops, and videos, and she has written scores for ensembles, chamber orchestras, and mixed choirs. With creative veracity and experimental inquiry her pieces have investigated the sound and movement of insects (she has orchestrated Madagascar hissing cockroaches and bees as they crawl across her body), as well as the physiological responses of plants, the human brain, and her own body. Within these varied contexts her performative sound work investigates (often with a high level of confluence) the interactive, collaborative aspects of sound, improvisation, nature, society and the contemporary expression of Japanese gagaku aural gesturalism: a way of presenting yourself, expressing the music through your posture. Masaoka’s work has been presented in Japan, Canada, and Europe, and she has toured to India six times. And now, ICASP and Musagetes are proud to announce that Miya Masaoka will be Guelph’s Improviser-in-Residence for the 2012 year.

Ajay Heble, Artistic Director of the Guelph Jazz Festival and Project Director for ICASP, says that “an imaginative and creative practitioner with the reputation of Masaoka—renowned not only in the New York creative music scene, but around the world—strengthens ICASP’s commitment to diverse multiplicity and collaboration, and furthers the project’s continued promotion of improvisation and dynamic exchange across cultural, communal, and creative musical lines. It is with great enthusiasm that I welcome Miya Masaoka to the ICASP team.” Shawn Van Sluys, Executive Director of Musagetes, comments, “Musagetes works with artists who build bridges between different elements of our societies and communities. Miya does that through an elegant and critical combination of movement, sound, and music. We’re very excited about this continuing collaboration with ICASP.” Further, various community-based organizations in Guelph could not be happier with the program and look forward to Masaoka’s much welcomed presence in the classrooms. Sue Gibson, a recreation therapist at KidsAbility Centre for Child Development, describes the program as an invaluable and unique privilege for the kids involved with the program: “KidsAbility’s partnership with ICASP has led our clients through a unique program experience of musical expression and creativity! ‘Play Who You Are’ participants are exposed to the rich talents and skills of wonderfully gifted musicians each season. The Improviser-in-Residence program brings music making and self-expression alive for the children. It has been an absolute privilege to be a part of this program.” ICASP and Musagetes are certain that the 2012 program will be another reverberating success.

The Improviser-in-Residence program is funded with the support of Musagetes and the Ontario Trillium Foundation.