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PS Guelph Book Launch — Improvising Freely: The ABCs of an Experience by Lê Quan Ninh (English Translation by Karen Houle)

Posted: Friday, August 29, 2014

Launch and Concert: Friday, September 5th // 10:30 pm Guelph Youth Music Centre (Purchase Tickets)

People of Good Will - Call for Proposals

Posted: Thursday, August 28, 2014

People of Good Will is a community-based art project that provides space and resources in Downtown Guelph for Aboriginal, immigrant, and culturally diverse communities to share their voices, creative visions, and contemporary experiences with Guelph and the region. People of Good Will is a collaboration between the Guelph Black Heritage Society, Musagetes, and the art collective Postcommodity.

Call for Papers - Hip Hop Mini-Symposium and Festival

Posted: Thursday, July 17, 2014

October 17, 2014, Oregon State University – Corvallis, Oregon The College of Liberal Arts at Oregon State University in conjunction with the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles and the Popular Music Studies Program at OSU will host a one-day conference and festival on the topic of Hip Hop Music and Culture. The conference will bring together two aspects of hip hop music: scholarship and performance. Our keynote speaker is the legendary hip hop performer MC Lyte.

Team Member Joel Bakan Featured on New Album!

Posted: Thursday, July 17, 2014

Joel Bakan, team member on the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI) has just released a new album with Rebecca Jenkins: Rebecca Jenkins and Her Trio, Live at the Cellar. The album was recorded live in February 2014 at Vancouver's Cory Weeds' Jazz Cellar, and features Myim Bakan-Kline on drums, and Bruce Meikle on bass. The album released July 3/4 in Toronto at the Jazz Bistro. To purchase their album, please visit:

Memorial University of Newfoundland to host Summer Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation, June 30 to July 12, 2014

Posted: Thursday, June 26, 2014

The Summer Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation brings together an international group of scholars and graduate students to attend lectures and develop their research in the emerging field of Improvisation Studies, at Memorial University from June 30th to July 12th, 2014.

Open Ears Festival of Music & Sound, June 5-15!

Posted: Monday, June 2, 2014

The 2014 iteration of the Open Ears Festival of Music & Sound will be held from June 5th-15th! A note from Artistic Director Gregory Oh: "Some of you heard our first vibrations in 1998, and others may be new aficionados or curious citizens out for a stroll. Even as I welcome you, I thank this community for welcoming me to my first festival in my new position as artistic director.

Dong-Won Kim in Concert with the Vertical Squirrels!

Posted: Friday, May 30, 2014

Wednesday, June 4th, 2014 8 pm University of Guelph, MacKinnon room 107 ***FREE AND OPEN TO ALL***

Improvising Across Borders Colloquium to be held June 21+22!

Posted: Friday, May 23, 2014

Improvising Across Borders Colloquium to be held Saturday, June 21st and Sunday, June 22nd, Robson Square Room C 400, at UBC. An unconventional colloquium presented by Coastal Jazz and the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI) Coastal Jazz and the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI) will host a two-day colloquium on Saturday June 21 & Sunday June 22, 2014, focused on the theme of improvising across boundaries.

Cardew 2014: The Great Learning

Posted: Friday, May 23, 2014

CARDEW 2014: THE GREAT LEARNING Co-presented by Quatuor Bozzini, IICSI and CIRMTT, this special Canada Council for the Arts funded series studies the life of British composer Cornelius Cardew (1936–1981) and is presented by Suoni Per Il Popolo. Conference ‘Improvisation and the Politics of Everyday Sounds: Cornelius Cardew and Beyond’

Congratulations to ICASP Research Associate Mark Laver!

Posted: Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Please join us in congratulating Mark Laver (ICASP Postdoctoral Fellow 2011-13) who has accepted a position as an Assistant Professor of Music at Grinnell College (Iowa, U.S.). His research explores intersections among jazz, improvisation, neoliberal capitalism, and consumption. His forthcoming book, Jazz Sells: Music and Marketing (Routledge) examines the use of jazz in advertising, marketing, and branding. Keep an eye/ear out for his book, and look for Mark at future IICSI events!

If people talked the way they drummed in improvisation, then I think the world would be a lot nicer…

– Youth participant, ICASP improvisation workshop