The Improviser's Classroom

Daniel Fischlin is Professor in the School of English and Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph. He is the founding Director of the Critical Studies in Improvisation Graduate program (MA/PhD) at the University of Guelph, as well as the co-founder and Artistic Director of the community artspace Silence. The author or editor of over thirty books, he is the coeditor of the recent publications, Sound Changes: Improvisation and Transcultural Difference and Playing For Keeps: Improvisation in the Aftermath. Mark Lomanno is a jazz pianist, ethnomusicologist, and faculty member in the Musicology Department at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music. They are former Chair of the Society for Ethnomusicology’s Improvisation Section and founder of “The Rhythm of Study,” a public forum that celebrates jazz musicians’ work in the arts, academia, and community activism. A former Mellon Foundation and Consortium for Faculty Diversity fellow, Lomanno has also been awarded several fellowships for his ethnographic and performance work in the Canary Islands.