SSXXII Workshops: Working with Improvising Musical Agents with Weather Vane

In this hands-on workshop, Weather Vane will demonstrate and facilitate working with musical improvising agents: software trained on small datasets that perform in real-time alongside human improvisers. Rather than being designed for power and adaptability across many genres or artistic outputs, these musical agents, and the communities that design and perform with them, are focused on specific types of improvised music rooted in those communities themselves.
In manipulating the small datasets and interacting with the agents, we have been compelled to reflect on our own improvised practice and ask: what exactly are we looking for in an improvising partner? Working with these agents reveals both the promise and the limitations of digital interlocutors as improvisation partners. Even so, we aim to show how machine learning technologies can open a concrete dialogue involving human agency and instrumental technique.
Weather Vane's performers will use a range of instruments (saxophone, eTubes, and clarinet) to demonstrate how the improvising agents respond to different timbres and harmonic spectra.
Attendees will need their instruments!
The when and where:
Sunday, July 19, 2026 @ 3:30 PM
MUN School of Music, Burtons Pond Rd, St. John’s, NL