Art of Improv - April 2026 Edition
Schedule
Sun, 19 Apr, 2026 at 08:00 pm
UTC-04:00Location
Annette Studios | Toronto, ON
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Art of ImprovSunday April 19th, 8pm
Annette Studios
566 Annette St
Toronto
$20 / PWYC
Art of Improv presents an evening of spontaneous creation featuring musicians who have founded world-renowned Canadian bands & collaborations.
Set 1: Mark Gane, Eugene Martynec, Bill Gilliam
Set 2: Bob Wiseman, John Oswald, Jesse Levine
Two sets. Pure improv.
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Mark Gane is a musician, songwriter and visual artist whose practice has encompassed performance art, improvised and popular music, painting, photography, graphics and garden design spanning over five decades. He is best known as a founder member of the band Martha and the Muffins and the composer of ‘Echo Beach’. While attending the Ontario College of Art (1975-1979), he became engaged in experimental and improvised music under the tutelage of Estonian/Canadian composer Udo Kasemets. Gane’s first solo album, ‘Garden Music’, a collection of instrumentals based on common plant names was released in 2025 with Spill Magazine calling it “…one of the most original albums this year…plays out like a movie for your mind”.
Bob Wiseman has spent decades detonating polite expectations in the Canadian music scene. A founding member of Blue Rodeo, he helped launch the band into the Juno-soaked stratosphere before peeling off to chase freer sounds. His solo work is a sweet collision of folk, improvisation, avant-garde wanderings, and whatever social commentary happened to be fizzing in his bloodstream that day. He has collaborated with everyone from Daniel Lanois to Mary Margaret O’Hara to Serena Ryder to Daniel Johnston - artists who don’t scare easily. Wiseman holds a Master’s in Environmental Studies from York University and is currently ABD in his PhD at the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation, a place where theory and chaos shake hands. His book Music Lessons crash-landed on the Globe and Mail’s Top Ten list in 2020, confusing those who prefer their musicians quiet and well-behaved. He keeps releasing work on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, wherever the signal reaches. Yes, he believes Sun Ra was from Saturn. He says it with the confidence of a man who has seen the paperwork.
https://linktr.ee/rockbob
John Oswald is best known as the the creator of the music genre Plunderphonics, an appropriative form of recording studio creation which he began to develop in the late sixties. This has got him in trouble with, and also generated invitations from major record labels and musical icons. Meanwhile, in the ’90’s he began, with several commissions from the Kronos Quartet, to compose scores, in what he calls the Rascali Klepitoire, for classical musicians and orchestras, including b9 (2012-13), a half hour condensation of all Beethoven’s Symphonies.
He also improvises on the saxophone in various settings, dances, and is a visual media artist and chronosopher, best known for the series Stillnessence. He’s a Canadian Governor General’s Media Artist Laureate.
http://www.pfony.com
http://www.6q.com
http://www.plunderphonics.com
http://www.6q.com/obs
Jesse Levine is a Toronto-based musician and teacher. He plays keyboard, organ and piano, and improvises on a variety of instruments and electronic devices. He was a member of the Sun Ra-influenced jazz group Canaille, led by Jeremy Strachan in Toronto, which released the album Practical Men. As a solo artist, he has performed in Toronto, Chicago and Montreal. His solo album under the moniker Kosher Dill Spears entitled “Laughing and Crying”(mastered by Sandro Perri ) was released on Thom Gill and Colin Fisher's short lived Toronto label Love Nation. Jesse performs at venues around Toronto such as the Tranzac. Over the past two years, he has been developing an electronic soul, loop-based project called CORDS, with which he released the album “Face the Sun” in 2024.
The Art of Improv is a series launched in 2023 by musicians Bill Gilliam and Eugene Martynec. Their goal is to invite artists with distinctive approaches to improvisation to join them for an evening of collaboration. Their partnership was inspired by their time in the Toronto Improvisers Orchestra, after which they decided to focus on working with smaller groups in duos and trios. They began by inviting artists with a unique vision of improvisation. Annette Studios provides the perfect setting: a fine piano, a dance floor, and space for about forty people where they present concerts three or four times a year.
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Where is it happening?
Annette Studios, 566 Annette St, Toronto, ON M6S 2C2, CanadaEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
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