Australian Improvisation Practicum 1: Tools for Individual Expression

Photo credit: Jackie Dixon

The Australian improvisation Practicum 1: Tools For Individual Expression is a 3-day residency that delves into musical language unique to Australian improvised music, with a specific focus on exploring potential intersections with compositional frameworks.

Led by faculty from the Australian Art Orchestra, participants will learn systems of music creation that empower performers to input their original ideas, forging pathways to discover their distinct artistic voices.

Alongside practical sessions and workshop-masterclasses, the practicum also assists participants in considering aspects such ethics in artistry, and Australia's unique position within a global ecosystem, making the AIP experience a holistic endeavour in discovering and defining what creative music is - and can be - in contemporary Australia

Dates: 24-26 June 2025
Location: Brunswick, Victoria
Applications close: 04 May 2025, midnight

Some focal points of AIP 1:

Sono-Kinetic Conducting

Sono-Kinetic Conducting is a communication system that replaces notated scores with a lexicon of hand gestures and baton movements. Developed by AAO Artistic Director Aaron Choulai, this language allows a conductor to compose in real time, using directives that create complex structures of form, harmony, rhythm, and melody, and utilises the ensembles individual artistic voices to interoperate and improvise these directives, influencing the direction and content for organised and instant composition.

A lateral extension of Butch Morris’ Conduction, Anthony Braxton’s Language Music, and Walter Thompson’s Soundpainting, Sono-Kinetic Conducting is designed to speak specifically to AAO’s artistic mission: to create new music that reflects the diversity of artists and artistic practice in our country and region using improvisation in a compositional framework that celebrates individual and distinct artistic voices.

This lexicon is teachable to musicians from all music traditions, utilising instruments from all regions and periods of time, and to musicians of all levels. This creates a widely accessible platform for collaboration—a kind of musical lingua franca—that enables intercultural exchange from an equitable starting point.

Unlike structured improvisation, Sono-Kinetic Conducting is a true compositional language, built on dialogue between conductor and players, as well as amongst the players themselves. It reimagines the compositional process, offering new pathways for individual artistic expression to shape compositional development. It rethinks how music is communicated, enhances accessibility for both composers and performers, and holds potential as an educational tool—enabling even beginners to engage with music creation from an early age.

Rhythm Diamonds

Rhythm Diamonds is an innovative system for understanding, visualising, and embodying rhythm, developed by acclaimed Australian percussionist Greg Sheehan. Across three sessions, participants will engage deeply with numerical patterns, rhythmic groupings, and their graphic representations to expand both conceptual and embodied rhythmic fluency. Highly participatory in nature, the workshop invites musicians into a dynamic process of vocalisation, body percussion, movement, and instrumental exploration. While grounded in percussion, the system is adaptable to all instruments and disciplines, offering a flexible framework for composers, improvisers, and ensemble performers seeking to refine their rhythmic awareness. The practice supports deeper internalisation of pulse and subdivision, while opening up space for creativity, play, and physical engagement within advanced rhythmic contexts. Despite its technical focus, Rhythm Diamonds is a joyful and energising system—one that sparks discovery and fosters connection through shared rhythm-making. This workshop is ideal for experienced musicians looking to push their rhythmic boundaries.

AIP Faculty

Aaron Choulai

Aaron Choulai is an award-winning and critically acclaimed composer, conductor, and pianist, whose work is recognised for its unique voice, forging new pathways across composition and improvised music. From large-scale intercultural works to his innovative conducting lexicon, Sono-Kinetic Conducting, Choulai’s career spans over 20 years, crossing international borders, genres, and cultures.

Originally from Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, Choulai spent the majority of his adult life in Tokyo before returning to Australia in 2023 to take on his current role as Artistic Director of the Australian Art Orchestra.

Aviva Endean

Aviva Endean is a clarinettist, composer, sound artist and performance-maker dedicated to connecting people with each other and their environment through attentive listening. She regularly works across a range of contexts including experimental and improvised music, new chamber music, and cross-disciplinary collaborations. Aviva’s work seeks to extend beyond the boundaries of her art form and to reimagine the possibilities of sound. She has collaborated with some of Australia’s most respected arts organisations including The Australian Art Orchestra, Room40, Chamber Made, TURA, and Chunky Move, and was the recipient of the Freedman Music Fellowship (2015), the APRA/AMCOS Art music award (2020/2023), a Greenroom award (best composition for dance 2019) and the Peggy Glanville-Hicks composer’s residency (2021).

Greg Sheehan

A leading figure in Australian percussion, Greg Sheehan is a performer, teacher and recording artist who is significantly represented in Australian music over the last 55 years. He has been a major influence on generations of musicians and has literally reshaped the map of rhythm.

A passionate visionary, Greg created a unique system known as ‘Rhythm Diamonds’ , which is now a successful book. His original body percussion style and reinvention of tambourine technique have become legendary!

Greg collaborates widely, with The Black Arm Band, Mark Simonds Freeboppers and Circle of Rhythm notable among a long list of renowned ensembles and projects.