Please join us on Wednesday, April 2 at 2:30 PM (ET) for “Sounds Like Us 2.0 | Final Showcase” with Campus Friends Community Members and workshop facilitators jashen edwards and Valentina Morelli.

Join us in celebrating the amazing work Campus Friends students have done this semester. Come listen to their original sound explorations, musical improvisations, and extended compositions, as well as their reflections and insights on the creative works they’ll be sharing.

This presentation will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph. The event is FREE and open to everybody!

More About the Event

Sounds Like Us—presented by the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI) and the Campus Friends (CF) program—brings professional musicians into collaboration with community members of varying developmental and physical needs through a series of fun and playful improvisation-based workshops. This season facilitators include postdoctoral fellow jashen edwards, PhD student Joe Sorbara, and community musician special guest, Valentina Morelli.

Sounds Like Us draws upon IICSI’s 12+ years of co-running “Play Who You Are” workshops in partnership with KidsAbility Centre for Child Development, a research-outreach project that has offered all participants—from new musicians to the very experienced; from music aficionados and scholars to first-time listeners—revelations about the links between music and community-making, improvisation and individual/community well-being, sound and self-expression. (And indeed, Sounds Like Us 2.0 includes alumni from Campus Friends and Play Who You Are!) This ongoing research has investigated and demonstrated the effectiveness of improvisation as a means of empowering and animating special needs youth. Researchers have documented and analyzed the myriad relationships between specific improvisational activities and their effects on, for example, socialization, self-esteem, physical coordination, and mental acuity.

As part of IICSI’s ongoing research into Improvisation, Wellbeing, and the Social Determinants of Health, Sounds Like Us will help us continue investigating how community arts participation impacts social connectivity and equitable participation in society. We have seen how improvisation builds resiliency, helps develop key skills, promotes self-expression and leads to greater feelings of belonging for participants.