Colloquium (convened by IICSI)

Important information about parking at the colloquium

The annual Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium features panel discussions, keynote speakers, artist talks, and workshops. The Colloquium is convened by the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI) at the University of Guelph, a major collaborative research initiative comprising non-profit organizations, researchers, and universities funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Partnering for Change: Learning Outwards from Jazz and Improvisation

What can creative partnerships teach us about collaboration across sectors and genres? How have musical partnerships contributed to movements for social justice? What are the ways in which people and organizations learn, grow, and change through partnerships? The Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium features panel discussions, performances, multi-media presentations, interviews, and workshops to foster a spirit of collaborative, boundary-defying inquiry and dialogue. This year, the Colloquium will explore partnerships as models for social mobilization, and is dedicated to musicians and improvisers who have engaged in community collaborations and social movements.

All colloquium events are free.

(updated on August 10; subject to change and addition)

Wednesday 13 September

8:30am, Wednesday, Room 203

Coffee and refreshments

9am, Wednesday, George Luscombe Theatre, MacKinnon Building, University of Guelph

Introduction and welcoming remarks: Malcolm Campbell (Vice President, Research – University of Guelph), and Ajay Heble (Director, International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation)

9:15-10:30am, Wednesday, George Luscombe Theatre, MacKinnon Building, University of Guelph

Panel 1: Partnering for Change

• Allen Tush Naturinda (In Movement: Art for Social Change, Uganda)
• Marshall Trammell (Music Research Strategies)
• Kade Twist (Postcommodity)

Moderator: Marva Wisdom

10:45 am-12pm, Wednesday, George Luscombe Theatre, MacKinnon Building, University of Guelph

Panel 2: Decolonizing Institutional Knowledges

• Dhiren Panikker (Ethnomusicology, University of California, Riverside) – Sound(ing) Community: Toward a Decolonial Ethics of Intercultural Praxis
• Hannah Burgé Luviano (Centennial College) – Shaken and Stirred: Koerner Hall’s New Canadian Global Music Orchestra
• Cathy Paton (Social Work, McMaster University) – Transforming an Improvisational Theatre Community Through Their Own Artistic Practice

Moderator: Brian Lefresne

12pm, Room 203, Mackinnon Building, University of Guelph

Lunch

1-2pm, Wednesday, George Luscombe Theatre, MacKinnon Building, University of Guelph

Workshop: Simultaneous Multi-Dimensionality

• Heritage Hall Research Group: Marshall Trammell (Black Spirituals) and Kade Twist (Postcommodity)

2:15-4:00pm, Wednesday, George Luscombe Theatre, MacKinnon Building, University of Guelph 

Panel 3: Ethics, Voice, Agency, and Wellbeing:

• James Aldridge (Historical Musicology, Case Western Reserve University) – Tristano’s Reichian Theory of Improvisation: Jazz of the Unconscious Mind
• Mark Lomanno (Music, Northeastern University) – Wail: Precarious Breath and Voicing Black Masculinity
• Keith Loach (Music, York University) – Improvisation In Neurorhythmics
• Francesco Paradiso (Faculty of Arts, University of Wolverhampton, UK) – The sound of ethics. Alterity, sound and improvisation meet on a Monday morning at Silence in Guelph

Moderator: Frédérique Arroyas

4:15-5pm, Wednesday, MacKinnon Building, University of Guelph 

Film Screening of “The Day the Clock Stopped” & Discussion on Improvisation and Ritual in Music

• Ron Grimes (Ritual Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University)
• Bryn Scott-Grimes (harmonica player / jazz guitarist)

5:15-6pm, Wednesday, George Luscombe Theatre, MacKinnon Building, University of Guelph

Workshop: “Revealing the Mysteries of Creating Movement” with Georgia Simms

9-9:45pm, Wednesday, Guelph Little Theatre

Mack Furlong (Sound Symposium) interviews Peter Brötzmann (following his ticketed 8pm solo concert)

1-2pm, Thursday, George Luscombe Theatre, MacKinnon Building, University of Guelph

Panel 5: Remembering Why Music Matters: Exploring Music and Memory through Improvisation

• Jesse Stewart (Music, Carleton University)
• Angela Paric (Health Sciences, Carleton University)
• Nancy Baele (retired art critic and participant in the “Music Matters” project)

Moderator: David Knight

2:15-3:30pm, Thursday, George Luscombe Theatre, MacKinnon Building, University of Guelph

Panel 6: Collaborating Across Boundaries

• Adam Tinkle (Skidmore College) – Mixed-skill Ensemble as Social Practice: Jazz Histories and Contemporary Contexts
• Tom Zlabinger (York College / CUNY) – Jazzadelica: Psychedelic Sounds as Embraced by Major Jazz Musicians
• Marcel Swiboda (University of Leeds) – Improvisation and Transduction: Collective Individuation in an Age of Automation

Moderator: Jeannette Hicks

3:45-4:45pm, Thursday, George Luscombe Theatre, MacKinnon Building, University of Guelph

Stuart Broomer interviews John Butcher, Thomas Lehn & Matthew Shipp

Friday 15 September

8:30, Friday, Room 203

Coffee and refreshments

9:00-10:15am, Friday, George Luscombe Theatre, MacKinnon Building, University of Guelph

Roundtable 1: So What’s Research Got to do with It? Sharing Findings of Short and Long-Term Research into Community Improvisation 

Heather Granger, Rob Jackson, Ellen Ringler, Rob Wallace,  Elizabeth Jackson

Moderator: Ajay Heble 

10:30-11:45, Friday, George Luscombe Theatre, MacKinnon Building, University of Guelph

Roundtable 2: Play Who You Are: Learning from a Decade of Community Improvisation  

Rich Burrows, Rich Marsella, Susanna Hood, Joe Sorbara, Lynette Segal

Moderator: Mary King

12-1pm, Friday, Branion Plaza, University of Guelph

Concert: Bernice (co-presented with the Central Student Association)

 1pm, Friday, Room 203

Lunch

1pm, Friday, Outdoor Dome, MacKinnon Green, University of Guelph

Marble Run Rung installation open for exploration

2-3:15pm, Friday, George Luscombe Theatre, MacKinnon Building, University of Guelph

Video Screenings and Discussion: Stories of Impact

• Dawn Matheson
• Kimber Sider
• Erin MacIndoe Sproule

3:30pm, Friday, Outdoor Dome, MacKinnon Green, University of Guelph

Marble Run Rung: Launch, performance, and open exploration of sound art installation by Jesse Stewart

The 2017 Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium was generously sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the SOCAN Foundation, Canadian Heritage/Patrimoine canadien, the Office of the President, the Office of the Vice-President (Research), the Office of the Vice-President (external), the Office of the Associate Vice-President (Student Affairs), the School of English and Theatre Studies, the School of Fine Art and Music, the School of Languages and Literatures, and the Central Student Association at the University of Guelph.