h o m e a b o u t m e m b e r s h i p e v e n t s c o n t a c t
a i m t o r o n t o [ d o t ] o r g
h i s t o r y
The Association of Improvising Musicians Toronto was founded in late
2004 by Ken Aldcroft, Rob Clutton, Nick Fraser, and Joe Sorbara as a
result of meetings with Vancouver guitarist and former New Orchestra
Workshop (NOW) Artistic Director, Ron Samworth. In January 2005,
Scott Thomson was added to form the first Board of Directors of the
newly incorporated organization.
AIMToronto's goal is to support and promote creative improvised music
and musicians in the Toronto area. Recognising that the diversity
of creative practice in the city had fostered many discrete "scenes"
with little continuity or coherence between them, the founders conceived
AIMToronto as an umbrella organization under which local
improvising musicians could affiliate to collectively generate a
greater visibility and audibility locally, nationally, and internationally.
The primary method by which this goal is achieved is the Interface
Series, in which visiting, world-class improvising musicians
collaborate with a variety of local improvisers during a three-day
concert program. Prior to the formation and incorporation of
AIMToronto, successful events of this nature had
been organized by Aldcroft and Sorbara. The first of these featuring Vancouver
drummer
Dylan Van der Schyff (August 2003), the
second featuring New York bassist
Reuben Radding (January 2004), and the third
featuring
Ron Samworth (April 2004).
Once the Association was formed, a fundraising Interface was held in January 2005, featuring all local musicians who donated their music in support of the new organization. Carl Wilson of The Globe and Mail wrote a detailed preview of the event entitled
Great Hoser Music, Ancient to the Future!
that contextualized AIMToronto within the history of creative improvisation
in the city, and compared the fledgling organization to various musicians'
collectives from other urban locales.
Revenue from the 2005 fundraising Interface helped to finance an Interface event in May of that year with Montreal saxophonist and composer,
Jean Derome. This was followed in July by another event with the
electro-acoustic trio, Laconnor. The trio, who visited Toronto while on a Canada
Council-sponsored tour, is comprised of
Francois Houle on clarinet
and electronics and
Jesse Zubot on violin and electronics (both
from Vancouver), and Jean Martin on drums and turntables (from Toronto).
In September 2005, with support from the Toronto Arts Council and the Royal Dutch Consulate in Ottawa, AIMToronto hosted the KaMoSc Trio -
Achim Kaufmann, piano,
Michael Moore, woodwinds (from Amsterdam), and
Dylan Van der Schyff - as well as the spectacular Amsterdam trombonist,
Wolter Wierbos. The 2005 season was rounded off with a final event in December featuring two top British musicians: drummer Paul Hession (Leeds) and saxophonist/bassoonist
Mick Beck (Sheffield).
Late in 2005, Rob Clutton resigned from the Board of Directors and, in
collaboration with the membership (which had grown to 75 members by year's end), Rob Piilonen was appointed as the new Board member in January 2006. In early February, another fundraising Interface took place, again featuring all local players. By that point, in addition to the twelve visiting artists, the
Interface Series had presented 86 different local musicians of different ages,
backgrounds, and creative practices.
In addition to concert and series promotion, AIMToronto is committed to developing creative improvisation in Toronto through educational initiatives. These endeavours have included:
- partnership with Victor Bateman's long-standing, periodic six-week improvisation workshops,
- workshops with visiting artists in conjunction with Interface Series',
- an improvisation workshop with Humber College students at their request,
- bi-weekly workshops led by various local musicians in association with the NOW Series at the NOW Lounge.
The 2006 Interface Series season has helped to cultivate relationships
between AIMToronto members and musicians from other important scenes
in Canada and internationally: Montreal bass clarinetist Lori
Freedman (March), Amsterdam bassist Wilbert de Joode (June), and
Lancaster, UK pianist Stephen Grew (August).
During this period, AIMToronto became official partners for the two
weekly improvised music series: Leftover Daylight Series (Fridays at
Arraymusic Studio -- and fast approaching its third anniversary) and
the NOW Series (Sundays at the NOW Lounge). Furthermore, AIMToronto launched the innovative MUSIC(in)GALLERIES event in July, 2006, in which 15 Queen Street West art galleries hosted free live music in overlapping sets by small groups comprised of 32 AIMToronto members on
a Saturday afternoon. A memorable party ensued.
In September, 2006, with the support of the Ontario Arts Council and
the Toronto Arts Council, AIMToronto hosted a brilliant (and
relatively well attented!) Interface Series featuring Joe McPhee. This event marked an inaugural partnership with the Music Gallery with the first night of the Interface taking place at St George-the-Martyr Church and representing the first night of the Music Gallery's X AVANT
New Music Festival. Further partnerships with the Guelph Jazz Festival (AIMToronto hosted their late-night improvisation sessions) and the Music Gallery (AIMToronto helped to program the music as part of the Nuit Blanche all-night art event in late September 2006) have also been afoot.
The 2007 season began with a January Interface with
legendary New York bassist William Parker. The event was presented with the help of the Canada Council for the Arts and was documented by guest artist Jeff Schlanger who made live, visual transcriptions of the music that was made as a part of his ongoing musicWitness project. Things continued with a fundraising event in March that featured two local improvisers, true pioneers of improvised music in Canada: Paul Dutton and John Oswald.
Rainer Weins, an innovator of the prepared guitar, visited from Montreal in April to interface with Toronto improvisers followed by Parisian cellist, Thomas Charmetant in late May - early June.
Our Interfaces have involved 19 special guests from five countries to date and have included 138 local improvisers, a constituency that is defining the Toronto scene of improvised music locally, nationally, and internationally. Future Interface Series events featuring Eddie Prevost and Malcolm Goldstein are in the works. More on these and others soon...
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Interface guests to date:
Mick Beck
Thomas Charmetant
Jean Derome
Lori Freedman
Stephen Grew
Paul Hession
Francois Houle
Wilbert de Joode
Achim Kaufmann
Jean Martin
Joe Mcphee
Michael Moore
William Parker
Reuben Radding
Ron Samworth
Dylan Van der Schyff
Rainer Weins
Wolter Wierbos
Jesse Zubot
Local participants to date:
Jonathan Adjemian
Ken Aldcroft
Lina Allemano
Gordon Allen
Colin Anthony
Parmela Attariwala
Marcel Aucoin
Jim Bailey
Jonny Bakan
Victor Bateman
Ali Berkok
Dougal Bichan
Todd Biffard
Bora Bora
Anne Bourne
Kyle Brenders
Stuart Broomer
Kevin Brow
Matt Brubeck
Nick Buligan
Allison Cameron
Christopher Cauley
Chris Cawthray
Tegan Ceschi-Smith
Elliot Chapin
Eric Chenaux
Dave Clark
Rob Clutton
Dan Corbett
Vanda Cordier
Brigitte Dajczer
Michel Delage
Paul Donat
Andrew Downing
Ryan Driver
Christine Duncan
Paul Dutton
Martin Eckart
Chris Evans
John Kameel Farah
Monica Fedrigo
Dave Fish
Colin Fisher
Nick Fraser
Bram Gielen
Tania Gill
Thom Gill
Mike Glendon
Ben Grossman
Scott Good
Geordie Haley
Glen Hall
Jason Hammer
Mike Hansen
Vanessa Hanson
Jay Hay
Justin Haynes
Michael Herring
Bret Higgins
Daffyd Hughes
Michelangelo Iaffaldano
Arnd Jurgenson
Michael Kaler
Elie Katzen
Michael Keith
Tiina Kiik
Steve Koven
Tomasz Krakowiak
Joe Lapinski
David Lee
Lee Pui Ming
Marilyn Lerner
Simon Levitt
Jim Lewis
Tilman Lewis
Fern Lindzon
Michael-Owen Liston
Germaine Liu
Jeff Luciani
Alex Lukashevsky
Aaron Lumley
Peter Lutek
Jean Martin
Neil Martinez
Michael Morse
Rob Mosher
David Mott
Quinsin Nachoff
Wes Neal
Paul Newman
Cheryl O
Jake Oelrichs
John Oswald
Stephen Parkinson
Sarah Peebles
Dan Pencer
Matt Pencer
Nilan Perera
Scott Peterson
Rob Piilonen
Tim Posgate
David Prentice
Nicole Rampersaud
Carina Reeves
Ronda Rindone
Matt Roberts
Michael Rosenthal
Erik Ross
Megan-Fay Rothschild
Brent Rowan
Kiran Sachdev
David Sait
Kevin Saltarelli
Don Scott
Evan Shaw
Tim Shia
Debashis Sinha
Michael Snow
Joe Sorbara
Andrew Stanisland
Jesse Stewart
Nick Storring
Jeremy Strachan
Melissa Stylianou
Adam Teixeira
Scott Thomson
Doug Tielli
Tim Turvey
Brandon Validivia
Sundar Viswanathan
Ellen Waterman
Gus Weinkauf
Brodie West
Monica Westerholm
John Wilson
Mitch Yolevsky
Andy Yue
Mark Zurawinski
last updated: 08/2007