This year, the Styrian Improvisers Orchestra invites the legendary vocalist and dancer Maggie Nicols as guest conductor. The charismatic artist will create a concert program with the musicians of the STIO and perform her own vocal and step interludes – including with the American bassist Christopher Williams.
Maggie Nicols
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Born 1948, in Edinburgh, Scotland, Maggie Nicols is one of today's most outstanding improvisers, vocalists and dancers, based in the UK, and has worked with numerous musicians in the avant-garde/music scene since the late 1960s. She is known for her work with musicians such as John Stevens (Spontaneous Music Ensemble), the London Improvisers Collective, founder of the improvisation forum “The Gathering”, collaborations with Phil Minton, Keith & Julie Tippett, the Swiss pianist Irene Schweizer and the French bassist Joëlle Léandre (Les Diaboliques).
Christopher Williams
Christopher A. Williams (1981, San Diego) makes and researches (mostly) experimental music. He is a coordinator and researcher in the project (Musical) Improvisation and Ethics (Austrian Science Fund ZK 93) at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz.
As a composer and contrabassist, his work runs the gamut from chamber music, improvisation, and radio art to collaborations with dancers, sound artists, and visual artists. Performances and collaborations with Derek Bailey, Compagnie Ouie/Dire, Charles Curtis, LaMonte Young’s Theatre of Eternal Music, Ferran Fages, Robin Hayward (as Reidemeister Move), Barbara Held, Christian Kesten, Christina Kubisch, Liminar, Maulwerker, Charlie Morrow, David Moss, Andrea Neumann, Mary Oliver and Rozemarie Heggen, Ben Patterson, Robyn Schulkowsky, Splitter Orchester, Ensemble SuperMusique, Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, Vocal Constructivists, dancers Jadi Carboni and Martin Sonderkamp, filmmaker Zachary Kerschberg, and painters Sebastian Dacey and Tanja Smit. This work has appeared in various North American and European experimental music circuits, as well as on VPRO Radio 6 (Holland), Deutschlandfunk Kultur, the Museum of Contemporary Art Barcelona, Volksbühne Berlin, and the American Documentary Film Festival.
GIF - Graz Impro Fest
26th August - 1st September 2024
Schaumbad – Freies Atelierhaus Graz is once again opening its doors to the unplanned: the second Graz Impro Fest awaits you. For seven days, the house and nature will be cleared for artists, collectives and the curious. Everyone is invited to join in, listen, drop by or simply be there. There are no boundaries, only perforations at the learned thresholds between performance and audience. And to ensure that the boundaries really do stay out of the way, diversity spreads – and not just in origami. Skating, making music and AI go together just as well as utopia and cooking. Because magic is created by doing and doing nothing together anyway. There is enough space for both loud and quiet participation. Speaking of which: nothing beats party participation. We also celebrate together, and in a really improvised way.
TICKETS:
Festival Pass: 30 €
Per Evening: 7 €
The Styrian Improvisers Orchestra
Nick Acorne (electronics), Claudia Cervenca (vocals), Jean Christophe Mastnak (horn), Dena DeRose (melodica), Clementine Gasser (cello), Annette Giesriegl (vocals), Anna Grenzner Matheu (cello), Seppo Gründler (guitar), Yvonne Hofmeister (vocals), Harald Hofmeister (guitar), Josef Klammer (drums), Katharina Klement (zither & electronics), Dominik Kreuzer (double bass), Hana Kuncic (violin), Michael Laab (guitar), Maggie Nicols (vocals), Ana Ostoicic (e-piano), Keyvan Paydar (drums), Roman Trubchaninov (saxophone), Kerstin Türtscher (vocals), Alvaro Vallejo Larre (violin), Christopher Williams (double bass &, washtube bass), Georg Wissa (vocals), Christoph Wundrak (trumpet), Patrick Wurzwallner (drums), Mia Zabelka (violin)