Free Improvisation

The Free Improvisation Ensemble welcomes artists of all disciplines and genres with an interest in creating unique, spontaneous performance works.  Since its founding in 2001, the ensemble has brought together musicians, dancers, visual, media and theater artists working in both traditional and experimental performance genres.  The ensemble has presented frequent performances on campus, and appeared in a variety of performance venues throughout Southern California, including the Roy O’ Disney Hall at The California Institute for the Arts, The Technika Radika Festival at the University of California, San Diego, and the Open Fist Theatre in Hollywood.  The Ensemble has also worked with many outstanding guest artists including composer/improviser Pauline Oliveros, video installation artist Marsia Alexander-Clarke, Creative Music Studio founder Karl Berger, and Jazz Tabla artist Badal Roy.  The ensemble has hosted an international festival of improvisation at UC Riverside in 2004, and received support for their work from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Associated Students of UC Riverside, and the UC Institute for Research in the Arts

Ensemble rehearsals are weekly hands-on workshops in which students create work in small and large groups in structured exercises, or from scores for structured improvisations.  The ensemble’s performances are equally innovative, incorporating music, dance, and visual elements like video installation and sculpture, as well as theatrical, spoken word and narrative elements.  All the ensemble’s performances are created collaboratively by the members, and many participants have composed original works for performances.  Participants are encouraged to expand their own performance disciplines with experience working closely with other artists, so many of these work cross disciplinary and genre boundaries.

The ensemble meets Fridays from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., and accepts members of all performance levels, with any level of experience in improvised performance.  For more information, contact the ensemble director Renee T. Coulombe at rcoulomb@ucr.edu.