RESEARCH OUTPUTS

Collective Improvisation and Instant Composition: 1960-2000

Coordinator: Gianmario Borio

In this section, several materials related to the workshop held in Rome on the 27th-29th October 2023 can be consulted. Three protagonists of the early scene of European improvisation – Alvin Curran, Eddie Prévost and Giancarlo Schiaffini – trained separate group of musicians in instrumental practice, deep listening, group interaction, and real-time-composing. The transmission of notions, principles and techniques which characterized a phase of great creativity in European improvisation was combined with discussions devoted to the expectations and needs of the present day. Gianmario Borio, Valentina Bertolani, Sabine Feisst, Maurizio Farina, Kai Lothwesen, Ingrid Pustijanac, and Veniero Rizzardi animated the theoretical sessions. The final concert presented the performances of the quintets led by the three maestri. 

A report of the workshop with excerpts of talks, discussions and performances is preceded by four lectures by Gianmario Borio about aesthetic issues, relationship to politics, performance styles of the most influential ensembles of the 1960s and 1970s.