[UN]COMMON SOUNDS blog

OPEN INVITATION to participate on ISIM: International Society of Improvised Music

On  this note, (this is serious!)  I am inviting you to consider joining and contributing your energy in a slightly different mode, the I.S.I.M.  That’s International Society of Improvised Music. Founded in 2000 by Ed Sarath, in Ann Arbor, the organization is gaining ground for the advocacy of improvised music, facilitating events, and exploring the potential for the philosophy and practice of improvisation to make a difference in the music world,  in society, and to knit together a network of kindred spirits throughout the world.
It kind of reminds me of what we envisioned to do in 1980, in NYC with the Improvisor’s Network (I.N.), but I.S.I.M is developing on a grander scale, and with more sure footing.  With an impressive Advisory Board already in place, I.S.I.M has already launched far-reaching directives.  Society is more ready, and the
environment right for improvisation to emerge as a recognized multi-dimensional art form.  It is the right time for a world musical evolution that will bring  together diverse disciplines that cross theoretical, transpersonal, aesthetic, and cultural lines.

Though quite young, I.S.I.M. already has a strong presence and two successful conferences where members meet and present, a website, publications and CD releases.  Just recently,  I was invited to join the Board of Directors, to help further the growth and cause of I.S.I.M.
My goal is to encourage  the “grass-roots” element of our improvising community, beyond academia, to join, to become involved, and be an integral part of building the organization, for those who have been
practicing the art of improvisation in their work to be a significant sector,  along with the philosophers and academia, to pull together a unified greater community, to influence, participate and contribute to
the movement and the practice.

Currently, we are entering a growth strategy. We need and want to increase I.S.I.M. memberships.  So, I am inviting you personally, to join the International Society of Improvised Music as a member.  There
are several levels of membership. I’m sure you will be able to find the level fits your interest.  You will be able to create your own web-page profile on the I.S.I.M. site, contribute music & articles, propose ideas, and participate in I.S.I.M conferences and festivals, interact and network, and further your own outreach, support your local activity with I.S.I.M as a parent organization. Indeed, our goal is to have active individuals and communities, building an education & performance network in the U.S. and internationally.  We all need to
know each other and feast on the exchange of music and ideas.  So, I’m asking you to take the time to go to our website, and check out the rest of us, who believe that your presence and alliance together with
like-minded individuals, will make a real difference for the future of

improvisers, and our relationship to the arts, and for the things we can birth together, for mutual creativity and community.

The Third Annual Conference, will be held this year at the University of Denver, on December 5-7, 2008.  The proposal deadline for performances and presentations is September 1st.  As a member, you will be eligible to submit a proposal to participate.

I’d like to see you join me in creating the “grass roots” sector of I.S.I.M, to make our voice an essential limb of the organization! a subversive arm, if you will, a balance to the academia! Examining improvisation, its philosophy, community, manifestation, and potential. So, please, consider joining.

What else can I say?   Go ahead, join I.S.I.M.  You can do this
online!    www.isimprov.org

Check it out.  What do you think about this?     Improvise!   Organize?

LaDonna

P.S.     Here’s the current call for Conference proposals. Oh, and
please pass this along to other potentially interested friends and
musicians.

International Society for Improvised Music
Third Annual Conference 2008
Lamont School of Music, University of Denver, Colorado USA
December 5-7, 2008

Improvisation and Identity: Discovering Self and Community in a Trans-Cultural Age

Keynote Address – Roscoe Mitchell
Featured Performers and Speakers – Joëlle Léandre and India Cooke

When Charlie Parker stated that “if you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn,” he conveyed, in his inimitable way, the capacity of improvisation to serve as a vehicle for integrating the totality of influences that shape personal and social identity.  From class, culture, economics, and ecology to gender, race, sexuality, and spirituality; improvising musicians spontaneously meld these and other aspects of their being in expressions that serve as both profound personal and collective commentaries.  In an era in which unprecedented levels of superficiality, alienation, and violence often overshadow a growing interest in creative and transpersonal development, and where an ever-escalating morass of data threatens to engulf a genuine cross-fertilization between disciplines and cultures; the importance of a creative vehicle for accessing and expressing one’s inner and outer worlds has never been greater.

Improvisation not only excels in this regard, it also—through the very moment-to-moment decision-making sequences that require individuals to penetrate beyond ordinary patterns of behavior—may exemplify the dissolution of provincial and nationalistic tendencies that divide communities and countries in our politically fragile world.
Improvisation, in fact, may be the ultimate lens through which the quest for self and community is revealed to be as much a collective as a personal endeavor.

The International Society for Improvised Music invites proposals related to the above theme for performances, papers, workshops, and other presentations for its third annual conference.  The theme may be construed broadly: it is compatible across wide-ranging approaches to improvised performance, it invites wide-ranging pedagogical applications, and suggests connections to wide-ranging, cross-disciplinary areas.  ISIM is committed to diversity in its programming.

Deadline for proposals: September 1, 2008
Notification date: September 26, 2008

ISIM Conference 2008 Proposal Form available at www.isimprov.org
Proposals accepted via email info@isimprov.org
Or by postal mail: ISIM, P.O. Box 1603, Ann Arbor MI, 48106 USA

As with prior conferences, applications will only be reviewed from current ISIM members.  New members may submit membership application with conference proposal.
Join ISIM at www.isimprov.org

For more information contact:

Sarah Weaver, ISIM Conference Director sarah@isimprov.org 734-277-2690

ISIM Board of Directors

Ed Sarath, President
Maud Hickey, Vice President
Karlton Hester, Vice President
LaDonna Smith, Treasurer
Betty Anne Younker, Secretary
Sarah Weaver, Executive Director
India Cooke

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http://www.bergmark.org
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