EVANSTON, Ill. --- The Northwestern University School of Music will host the second annual conference of the International Society for Improvised Music (ISIM) on the Evanston campus, Dec. 14 to 16.

Titled “Building Bridges: Improvisation as a Unifying Agent in Education, Arts, and Society,” the three-day conference will bring together international performers, educators, students and community members and further their understanding of improvisation. Two of the conference’s performance events will be open to the general public.

Featured artists and presenters will include soprano saxophonist and composer Jane Ira Bloom; internationally renowned bassist/improviser and composer Mark Dresser; Lebanese trumpeter Mazen Kerbaj, co-director of the annual Irtijal Festival of Experimental Music in Beirut; saxophonist and flutist Oliver Lake performing with the University of Michigan Creative Arts Orchestra; Northwestern University Professor Emeritus and music education expert Bennett Reimer; Chicago-based American-Assyrian musician and composer Michael Zerang; and representatives from the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.

Conference events will take place in the School of Music Administration Building, 711 Elgin Road; Lutkin Hall, 700 University Place; and the Orrington Hotel in Evanston. Registration to attend all conference events is $100. To pre-register, go to the ISIM conference Web site at <http://isim.edsarath.com/>. Registration also can be accomplished at the time of the conference at the conference headquarters in the Music Administration Building, Room 37.

The following ISIM performance events will take place in Lutkin Hall, 700 University Place. Admission (at the door only) for the Friday and Saturday evening concerts is $20 for the general public; $10 for senior citizens and Northwestern faculty and staff; and free to full-time students with IDs.

Friday, Dec. 14
8 p.m. A performance of “Great Black Music, Ancient to the Future” by Douglas Ewart and other musicians from the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).

Saturday, Dec. 15
8 p.m. Trumpeter Mazen Kerbaj of Beirut, founder of Al Maslakh, a Lebanese record label dedicated to promoting experimental music in the Arab world, and Chicago-based percussionist Michael Zerang, a first-generation American of Assyrian descent, have worked together since 2004. Kerbaj and Zerang will perform improvised acoustic music employing extended techniques for trumpet and percussion. The program also will feature soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom and Grammy Award-nominated bassist and composer Mark Dresser. Bloom is a pioneer in the use of live electronics and movement in jazz. Her continuing commitment to “pushing the envelope” in her music has led to collaborations with such outstanding jazz artists as Kenny Wheeler, Charlie Haden, Ed Blackwell, Rufus Reid, Matt Wilson and Mark Dresser. Dresser has extended the sonic and musical possibilities of the double bass through the use of unconventional amplification.

The ISIM promotes performance, education and research in improvised music, and illuminates connections between musical improvisation and creativity across fields.

Creating connections is one of the most common themes today. Whether forging treaties between hostile nations, creating ties between diverse cultures, melding ideas and artistic influences, or negotiating the intricacies of human relationships, the capacity to integrate disparate perspectives and constituencies into a coherent whole is central to meaning and progress in most every area of life. Recognizing improvisation as a powerful tool for building bridges, the ISIM event will feature performances, workshops and papers based on this theme.

For complete conference information and registration fees, visit the ISIM conference web site.

(Source contact: Sarah Weaver, ISIM conference director at (734) 277-2690 or sarah@isimprov.org).