Rova:Arts is pleased to present Improv:21, a series of “informances” on twenty-first century music that explore the connection between predetermined structure (composition) and performer interpretation (improvisation). Led by master improvisers and composers from the Bay Area and beyond, and hosted by critic and KPFA radio host Derk Richardson, Improv:21 programs look at the many ways of organizing improvisation through a shifting (i.e. “improvised”) combination of onstage lecture and dialogue, musical demonstration and performance, and audience question-and-answer forum. Reasonably priced and easily accessible, these two-hour events are designed to inform, inspire, challenge, and enlighten a wide-ranging audience, from professional and amateur musicians to listeners of all backgrounds and levels of experience. All these informances are also being documented on video for future availability to students and fans alike. In fact, every two months, we upload one Improv21 to RadiOM.

The streaming media site hosted by Other Minds, another great new music organization in San Francisco worthy of your support and attention.

The first five events took place in San Francisco in 2005; they were led by guitar legend Fred Frith (January 30), discussing his composing for film (Rivers and Tides; Step Across the Border) and for large ensembles of improvisers; by L.A.-based guitar pyrotechnician Nels Cline (March 26), discussing the influence on his music of the late great John Coltrane, and including a live duet with tenor saxophonist Larry Ochs; by the members of Rova Saxophone Quartet (June 5), discussing their current music either influenced by or directly involved with the visual arts and visual scores; by singer and master violinist Carla Kihlstedt (Sept. 15), discussing her personal history and development as an improviser; and saxophonist, poet and artist Oliver Lake (Oct. 17), illustrating with live solo performance and recorded CDs, his compositional artistry.

In early 2006, Improv 21 took place at 21 Grand in Oakland and featured large ensemble composer and percussionist Gino Robair (Feb 1), lecturing on and performing his large ensemble opera with a forty person ensemble of improvisers; the extraordinary saxophone soloist and composer Ned Rothenberg (Feb 15) who discussed his work in Japan with koto as well as his thoughts and processes as a solo improviser; and master koto player, composer, and conceptual artist Miya Masaoka (March 8) who discussed her conceptual compositions for plants, her solo work on koto, and her methods of improvisation.

 

A list of all past Improv:21 events follows:

07-08 Season at The Marsh in San Francisco:

• Oct. 24: Henry Kaiser – Improvisation at the End of the World
• Nov. 28: Zeena Parkins – The Texture of Sound
• Feb. 21: Roscoe Mitchell – Improvisingwith Mr. Mitchell
• April 16: Mark Dresser – Spectral Delivery
• May 21: Scott Amendola – Beats, Sounds, Sticks and Wires

06-07 Season at San Francisco Performing Arts Library:

• Oct. 30: Ben Goldberg – the chair the fact
• Nov. 13: John Zorn - Q + A
• Dec. 4: Cheryl Leonard - Playing the Wild
• Feb. 5: Lawrence “Butch” Morris - Understanding Conduction
• March 12: Wadada Leo Smith - The Systemic Language of Music & the Spirituality of Art
• April 9: Chris Brown and Tim Perkis - Machines and Others May 21: Bob Ostertag – Creative Life
• June 25: Joan Jeanrenaud and William Winant – Approaching Notated and Improvised Scores

05-06 Season

at The Thick House, San Francisco:

• Sep. 14: Carla Kihlstedt – Liberating Limits
• Oct. 19: Oliver Lake – Passin’ Thru

At 21 Grand, Oakland:

• Feb. 1: Gino Robair - Improvised Opera: Taking Emperor Norton to the Streets
• Feb. 15: Ned Rothenberg - Solo Performance - the Composer-Performer's Focal Point
• Mar. 8: Miya Masaoka - Plants Make Music!

The opening shows in 2005 at Mission Dance Theater, San Francisco:

• Jan. 30: Fred Frith – Films + Music
• Mar. 26: Nels Cline – Rock to Coltrane to ‘Out’
• Jun. 5: Rova - Music Envisioned