Talks & Writings

Abstract

Presented online at Grazer Impro Fest 2026 (Graz, 26 August to 1 September), an interdisciplinary festival of improvisation, with the speaker in Switzerland and the audience in Graz. That distance became the starting point of the talk: sharing the same event does not mean listening from the same position.

Improvisation is often associated with spontaneity, freedom and the absence of predetermined structures. This talk proposes a more critical perspective: improvisation as a relational practice, in which form, knowledge and meaning emerge through interaction under conditions of uncertainty. Its question is not only what performers create, but what happens between people when they create something together in real time.

When score, script, genre and form are removed, freedom does not appear automatically: orientation changes its source and emerges from listening, response and silence. Yet open situations are not neutral. Who takes space, who listens, and whose contributions remain unheard? Drawing on Offene Bühne Zürich, the talk shows how power persists without visible authority, and how openness can turn into style and style into norm, an "orthodoxy of openness". The answer is not to abolish criteria, but to keep them visible, negotiable and open to revision.

A short participatory listening practice, in dialogue with Pauline Oliveros, lets the audience experience how a minimal structure can create a shared situation without requiring uniformity or consensus. The talk closes with risk, care and responsibility: improvisation as a practice of sustaining relations under conditions of uncertainty, in which responsibility for what emerges becomes shared.

Abstract

Presented in the METRIC Online Sessions, organized by METRIC (Modernizing European Higher Music Education through Improvisation), a network of European conservatoires, together with the AEC (European Association of Conservatoires).

What changes in music education when music is understood not only as the realization of a finished work, but as an event that emerges from relationships, decisions and negotiation in real time? Starting from classroom situations with first-year classical students, this talk traces that shift: from stable object to emergent event, from pre-given criteria to negotiated ones, from correctness to responsiveness.

Using the TRICK framework to design the conditions for this work, the talk shows how students negotiate form, silence, roles and feedback together.

Its central consequence concerns assessment. If form emerges through interaction, evaluation has to look not only at what is played, but at how students listen, respond and share space. At the same time, improvisation is not emancipatory by itself: it produces its own norms and hierarchies. Its critical potential depends on keeping criteria visible, open to discussion and to change.

Abstract

Presented at Can Everyone Improvise?, an international conference at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (KUG), in March 2026.

Much of higher music education is still organised around correctness and control. In this setting, mistakes become a threat rather than material, and the freedom of improvisation is unevenly shared. Some students expand, others hold back.

Starting from the conference's title question, the lecture asks who can improvise inside an institution, and under what conditions. It describes three things that happen when improvisation works as a critical practice. Hidden norms become audible, agency is shared among the players, and quality is measured less by correctness than by listening and responsiveness.

For this to happen consistently and not by chance, the talk presents TRICK (Trust, Respect, Independence, Collaboration, Kindness), a framework developed by the educator Esther Wojcicki and adapted here for teaching improvisation. TRICK does not define what to play. It defines the conditions for taking part. Three classroom exercises show how it works in practice. The lecture closes with a question for institutions: what would it take for improvisation to become a structural part of music education rather than a decorative one?

Abstract

Published in improfil. Theorie und Praxis improvisierter Musik, No. 88 (December 2025), pp. 6–9, as the opening article of the thematic issue "Improvisation als ‚aktuelle Musik‘". improfil is the annual journal of the Ring für Gruppenimprovisation, devoted to artistic, scholarly and pedagogical questions of improvisation. It continues the Ringgespräch über Gruppenimprovisation, published since 1964 and renamed improfil in 2015.

Responding to the issue's theme, the article asks what happens when improvisation is understood not only as a musical practice, but as an epistemological, political and social act. Following Jacques Derrida, it reads improvisation as an "experience of the impossible": exposure to an event that cannot be planned, yet calls for responsibility.

Improvisation appears as an "undiscipline", a knowledge that cannot be stored in scores or systems but unfolds performatively and relationally. With Levinas and Derrida it becomes a space of sonic hospitality, where listening, silence and stepping back are acts of relation; with Mignolo and Foucault, a form of epistemic disobedience that questions which musical knowledge institutions treat as legitimate.

The argument is grounded in Listening Across the Borders, an intercultural residency in Zurich with artists of Jewish, Arab and European backgrounds. The absence of several invited artists made the project's tensions tangible and showed its limits: art cannot resolve conflicts, but it can open spaces where difference becomes audible and negotiable. The article concludes that improvisation, as a practice of the present, belongs at the centre of artistic education and research.

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Ein Essay über Improvisation als kritische, ethische und epistemische Praxis: zwischen Derridas „Erfahrung des Unmöglichen“, Alterität, dekolonialem Denken und interkulturellem Hören.

Erschienen in improfil. Theorie und Praxis improvisierter Musik, Nr. 88 (Dezember 2025), S. 6–9, als Eröffnungsbeitrag des Themenhefts „Improvisation als ‚aktuelle Musik‘“. improfil ist die jährlich erscheinende Zeitschrift des Rings für Gruppenimprovisation und widmet sich künstlerischen, wissenschaftlichen und pädagogischen Fragen der Improvisation. Sie geht auf das seit 1964 erscheinende Ringgespräch über Gruppenimprovisation zurück und trägt seit 2015 ihren heutigen Namen.

Ausgehend vom Thema des Heftes fragt der Beitrag, was geschieht, wenn Improvisation nicht nur als musikalische Praxis, sondern als epistemologischer, politischer und sozialer Akt verstanden wird. In Anlehnung an Jacques Derrida wird Improvisation als „Erfahrung des Unmöglichen“ gelesen: als Sich-Aussetzen gegenüber einem Ereignis, das nicht planbar ist, aber dennoch Verantwortung fordert.

Improvisation erscheint als „Undisziplin“, als ein Wissen, das sich nicht in Partituren oder festen Systemen speichern lässt, sondern sich performativ und relational entfaltet. Mit Levinas und Derrida wird sie zum Raum klanglicher Gastfreundschaft, in dem Zuhören, Stille und Zurücktreten zu Formen der Beziehung werden; mit Mignolo und Foucault zu einer Form epistemischen Ungehorsams, die fragt, welches musikalische Wissen Institutionen als legitim anerkennen.

Verankert wird die Argumentation im Projekt Listening Across the Borders, einer interkulturellen Residenz in Zürich mit Künstler:innen jüdischer, arabischer und europäischer Herkunft. Die Abwesenheit mehrerer eingeladener Künstler:innen machte die Spannungen des Projekts unmittelbar erfahrbar und zeigte seine Grenzen: Kunst kann Konflikte nicht lösen, aber Räume öffnen, in denen Differenz hörbar und verhandelbar wird. Der Beitrag schließt mit dem Plädoyer, Improvisation als Praxis der Gegenwart ins Zentrum künstlerischer Ausbildung und Forschung zu rücken.

About

First episode of 17, Seminarios on 17 Radio. Gabriela Olivo de Alba talks with Diego Kohn and Ricardo Lomnitz, who coordinates the area of improvisation studies at 17, about the seminar before its start. Recorded online on 12 September 2025.

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Una conversación radial que presenta el seminario online Poéticas de la escucha, la improvisación y la escritura, que Diego Kohn dictó en 17, Instituto de Estudios Críticos, en otoño de 2025.

Primer episodio de 17, Seminarios en 17 Radio. Gabriela Olivo de Alba conversa con Diego Kohn y Ricardo Lomnitz, coordinador del área de improvisación de 17, sobre el seminario antes de su inicio. Grabado por Zoom el 12 de septiembre de 2025.

Abstract

Presented at the Tikkun Leil Schawuot of JLG Or Chadasch, the Liberal Jewish Community of Zurich, in June 2025. On the eve of Shavuot the community traditionally spends the night in study; that year’s theme was “Dialogue”, with talks on communication in conflict, on art and religion, and on the Torah (Hebrew Bible).

The lecture begins not with a concept but with a minute of shared silence. From there it turns to the Hebrew imperative Sh’ma, “listen”, at the heart of the central Jewish prayer. In this tradition the revelation at Sinai, remembered at Shavuot, is heard rather than seen: the relationship begins with a call, not with an image.

Speaking as a Jew and as a musician, Diego Kohn connects this call with his work in improvisation, where there is no score and listening holds the moment together. With Emmanuel Levinas, listening becomes exposure to the other, making room for what I am not. In a divided world it can be a form of resistance, and perhaps a way toward healing.

Listening Across the Borders, a residency in Zurich with artists from Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Bethlehem, grounds these ideas in practice. The lecture closes with two listening practices for the audience: a Listening Card that recalls a sound from childhood, and a sound walk in silence through the night streets of Wiedikon.

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Ein Vortrag über das Zuhören als Lebenspraxis und künstlerische Praxis: ausgehend vom Sh’ma, dem jüdischen Ruf zum Hören, hin zu Improvisation, Dialog und Begegnung.

Gehalten beim Tikkun Leil Schawuot der Jüdischen Liberalen Gemeinde Or Chadasch in Zürich, im Juni 2025. In der Nacht vor Schawuot verbringt die Gemeinde traditionell die Zeit mit Lernen; das Thema des Abends war „Dialog“, mit Beiträgen zu Kommunikation in Konflikten, zu Kunst und Religion und zur Tora (hebräische Bibel).

Der Vortrag beginnt nicht mit einem Begriff, sondern mit einer Minute gemeinsamer Stille. Von dort führt er zum hebräischen Imperativ Sh’ma, „Höre“, im Zentrum des wichtigsten jüdischen Gebets. In dieser Tradition ist die Offenbarung am Sinai, an die Schawuot erinnert, ein Hören und kein Sehen: Die Beziehung beginnt mit einem Ruf, nicht mit einem Bild.

Als Jude und als Musiker verbindet Diego Kohn diesen Ruf mit seiner Arbeit in der Improvisation, in der es keine Partitur gibt und das Zuhören den Moment trägt. Mit Emmanuel Levinas wird Zuhören zum Sich-Aussetzen gegenüber dem Anderen: Raum machen für das, was nicht ich bin. In einer zerrissenen Welt kann es Widerstand sein und vielleicht ein Weg zur Heilung.

Das Projekt Listening Across the Borders, eine Residenz in Zürich mit Künstler:innen aus Jerusalem, Tel Aviv und Bethlehem, verankert diese Gedanken in der Praxis. Zum Schluss lädt der Vortrag zu zwei Hörübungen ein: einer Listening Card, die einen Klang aus der Kindheit wachruft, und einem Sound Walk in Stille durch die nächtlichen Strassen von Wiedikon.

Abstract

Presented online as part of the third edition of the Advanced Studies Chair Improvisar con Ñ, an eight-lecture series on free improvisation in the Spanish-speaking world, organized by 17, Instituto de Estudios Críticos (Mexico City), in March 2025.

This talk explores free improvisation not only as a musical practice, but as a way of questioning inherited modes of listening, creating, learning and relating. Conceived as a reflection in progress, it places improvisation in dialogue with critical thought, approaching it as an "undisciplined" practice that resists reduction to a technique or genre.

With Nietzsche, improvisation appears as the return of a Dionysian dimension of risk and spontaneity; with Levinas and Derrida, as sonic hospitality toward the unpredictable other; with Foucault, as resistance to the norms that decide what counts as legitimate music. Through Derrida, the impossible is understood not as what cannot happen, but as what escapes calculation and anticipation.

In dialogue with Walter Mignolo and decolonial thought, the talk finally considers improvisation as a space of epistemic disobedience and sonic pluriversality, and argues that it deserves a central place in music education.

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Una reflexión sobre la improvisación libre como práctica crítica: un espacio para cuestionar normas musicales, abrirse a la alteridad y habitar lo imprevisible como posibilidad de creación y transformación.

Presentada online en la tercera edición de la Cátedra de Estudios Avanzados Improvisar con Ñ, un ciclo de ocho conferencias sobre improvisación libre en el mundo hispanohablante, organizado por 17, Instituto de Estudios Críticos (Ciudad de México), en marzo de 2025.

Esta conferencia explora la improvisación libre no solo como práctica musical, sino como una manera de cuestionar modos heredados de escuchar, crear, aprender y relacionarse. Planteada como una reflexión en proceso, pone la improvisación en diálogo con el pensamiento crítico y la entiende como una práctica «indisciplinada», que no se deja reducir a una técnica o a un género.

Con Nietzsche, la improvisación aparece como retorno de una dimensión dionisíaca de riesgo y espontaneidad; con Levinas y Derrida, como hospitalidad sonora frente a la imprevisibilidad del otro; con Foucault, como resistencia a las normas que deciden qué música es legítima. A partir de Derrida, lo imposible no es lo que no puede ocurrir, sino lo que escapa al cálculo y a la anticipación.

En diálogo con Walter Mignolo y el pensamiento decolonial, la conferencia considera finalmente la improvisación como espacio de desobediencia epistémica y pluriversalidad sonora, y sostiene que merece un lugar central en la educación musical.

Abstract

Published in Música experimental argentina: un pulso sónico inagotable (Eugenio Damián Fernández and Omar Grandoso, Buenos Aires, 2024), a 500-page survey of experimental music in Argentina presented at the National Library in May 2024. Diego Kohn is one of 57 musicians whose first-person texts form the section «¿Experimental?».

In conversation with the book’s authors, Diego Kohn distinguishes improvisation from experimental music: both explore sound and unpredictability, but improvisation adds otherness, the constant negotiation with others, with the space and with oneself. He argues that improvisation is a practice rather than a style, and that its arrival in music academies should not make it comfortable for them. Its role is to question hegemonic values and to widen what students hear and enjoy as music.

The interview also traces his path: early encounters with sound and contemporary music in Buenos Aires, studies in composition, the master’s in improvisation in Basel with Fred Frith and Alfred Zimmerlin, and the series La improvisación libre en Latinoamérica, created to make Latin American scenes visible and connect them.

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Una entrevista sobre la improvisación libre como práctica y no como estilo, su lugar en las instituciones académicas y el recorrido personal que llevó de Buenos Aires a Basilea y Zúrich.

Publicada en Música experimental argentina: un pulso sónico inagotable (Eugenio Damián Fernández y Omar Grandoso, Buenos Aires, 2024), un panorama de más de 500 páginas sobre la música experimental en Argentina, presentado en la Biblioteca Nacional en mayo de 2024. Diego Kohn es uno de los 57 músicos cuyos textos en primera persona forman la sección «¿Experimental?».

En diálogo con los autores del libro, Diego Kohn distingue la improvisación libre de la música experimental: ambas exploran el sonido y lo imprevisible, pero la improvisación suma la otredad, la negociación constante con el otro, con el espacio y con uno mismo. Sostiene que la improvisación es una práctica y no un estilo, y que su llegada a las academias no debe volverla cómoda para ellas. Su papel es cuestionar valores hegemónicos y ampliar lo que los estudiantes escuchan y disfrutan como música.

La entrevista recorre también su camino: los primeros encuentros con el sonido y la música contemporánea en Buenos Aires, los estudios de composición, el máster en improvisación en Basilea con Fred Frith y Alfred Zimmerlin, y el ciclo La improvisación libre en Latinoamérica, creado para visibilizar y conectar las escenas latinoamericanas.

Abstract

Presented at Musicians’ Perspectives on Improvisation, a two-day international symposium at Exploratorium Berlin, a venue dedicated to improvised music, in February 2024.

This talk reflects on the experience of non-European improvising musicians, especially from Latin America, working in European scenes. It draws on personal experience, encounters with colleagues and artistic practice rather than on systematic research.

Starting from musical education in Argentina, where European repertoire and theory have long defined what counts as musical value, it examines the relationship between cultural centres and peripheries. Free improvisation, which does not require a fixed grammar or stylistic identity, is proposed as a space for de-normalization, decentralization and dis-identification: a way of making music without being defined either by the norms of the centre or by expectations of "authentic" origin.

The talk does not claim that improvisation abolishes structural inequalities. It suggests that it can make the boundaries of musical legitimacy more flexible, opening a space of encounter where the musician is neither a student of established norms nor an "exotic" representative of the periphery.

Abstract

Opening talk of the online series Free Improvisation in Latin America (six sessions, 2022), initiated by Diego Kohn and conceived and coordinated together with Dr. Silvana Figueroa-Dreher, in collaboration with Ibermúsicas and the Universidad de los Andes, Colombia.

Addressed to musicians, students, educators and a broader public, this talk does not offer a closed definition of free improvisation. It approaches it as music made in the moment, without rules given in advance by a composition, a system or a stylistic language, and traces its emergence from the late 1960s in free jazz, experimental music and collective practices in Europe, North America and Latin America, within the social and intellectual climate of 1968.

It then proposes improvisation as a form of deconstruction, one that reveals tonality, the musical work, genre and the composer-performer hierarchy as historical constructions. The talk introduces the notion of "tonalcentrism" and, with Foucault, asks how education decides what counts as music. Playing with others brings difference, and difference brings conflict, understood not as violence but as the condition of encounter.

Finally, it considers what this means for music education: free improvisation can counterbalance teaching models oriented almost exclusively toward reproduction and technical correctness, and make room for listening, creativity, autonomy and shared responsibility.

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Una introducción a la improvisación libre como práctica musical, social y crítica: su historia, su relación con la escucha y la alteridad, y su capacidad para cuestionar normas y jerarquías musicales.

Charla inaugural del ciclo online La improvisación libre en Latinoamérica (seis encuentros, 2022), iniciado por Diego Kohn y concebido y coordinado junto con la Dra. Silvana Figueroa-Dreher, en colaboración con Ibermúsicas y la Universidad de los Andes, Colombia.

Dirigida a músicos, estudiantes, docentes y público en general, esta charla no propone una definición cerrada de la improvisación libre. La aborda como una música hecha en el momento, sin reglas dadas de antemano por una composición, un sistema o un lenguaje estilístico, y recorre su surgimiento desde fines de los años sesenta en el free jazz, la música experimental y las prácticas colectivas de Europa, Norteamérica y Latinoamérica, en el clima social e intelectual de 1968.

Luego propone pensar la improvisación como una forma de deconstrucción, que deja ver la tonalidad, la obra, el género y la jerarquía entre compositor e intérprete como construcciones históricas. Introduce la noción de «tonalcentrismo» y, con Foucault, se pregunta cómo la educación decide qué cuenta como música. Tocar con otros trae diferencia, y la diferencia trae conflicto: no como violencia, sino como condición del encuentro.

Por último, reflexiona sobre la educación musical: la improvisación libre puede compensar modelos de enseñanza orientados casi exclusivamente a la reproducción y a la corrección técnica, y abrir lugar a la escucha, la creatividad, la autonomía y la responsabilidad compartida.