The Improvisors Hold a Conference

I'm giving a presentation at the inaugural conference of the International Society for Improvised Music later this week. Improvising musicians tend to be so right-brained and, well, improvisational, that it is something approaching a miracle that the society has been formed and the conference has been so lovingly and efficiently organized by Ed Sarath, Sarah Weaver, and others.

There are so many presenters that aside from the keynote sessions, there will be that frustrating simultaneous-presentation phenomenon. I feel so sorry for everyone else presenting at the same time as me--they won't have an audience! (Just kidding. I hope it is not the other way around.)

The conference is at the University of Michigan. I love Ann Arbor and haven't been there for a while, so I'm really looking forward to it. Here's the blurb on my presentation:

Humanistic, Pan-Idiomatic Improvisation: Using Approaches of David Darling and Arthur Hull in Working with College Music Students

The humanistic approach to improvisation developed by David Darling and his colleagues in Music for People has profoundly influenced many musicians and educators. DePauw University cello professor Eric Edberg will discuss/demonstrate how his training with Music for People, and also with Arthur Hull (author of Drum Circle Spirit), has created opportunities for transcending classical perfectionism and fostering creativity and panidiomatic improvisation skills in himself and his students. The session includes music making; instruments welcome.