VIENNA IMPROVISERS ORCHESTRA

With its praxis of Instant Composition Conducting, the Vienna Improvisers Orchestra (VIO) engages in a special discourse of experimental composition and complex improvised music for large ensembles. Based on a vocabulary of hand-signs, momentary compositions arise from the oscillation between ad hoc conducting that provides structure and ensemble improvisation. Instant Composition Conducting, which is based on Butch Morris' method of hand-sign-conducting called Conduction, has been developed by ad-hoc-conductor/art. dir. Michael Fischer since 2004 into a coherent praxis that follows certain principles:
1. absolute ad hoc creation - on the part of both the ensemble and the conductor; there are no prepared or agreed-upon modules/designs, 2. no rehearsals, only a short try-out of the hand-signs before the concert begins, 3. the musicians are grouped according to instruments, 4. few hand-signs (approx. 20) are used, which 5. are used as sparingly as possible, 6. the instant compositions have long, narrative sequences of 35-50 minutes, 7. each concert features a curated, ever-changing ensemble constellation and usually includes at least one new musician.

In always gender-balanced ensembles, the VIO unifies outstanding musicians (from approx. 30 countries) from the fields of free improvisation, jazz, electronic music, and new music, as has worked extensively with writers of experimental literature.

The VIO has been a guest at renowned festivals such as Wien Modern - festival for contemporary music (2020, 2025), at the Moers-Festival, where its cocerts was celebrated with standing ovations lasting several minutes, at the Music Unlimited festival, at the Artacts festival for improvised music and jazz, at the Vienna Art Week festival, the Porgy & Bess Vienna, Brut Vienna, the Vienna Climate Biennale, and in contexts of visual art such as the Belvedere21 - museum of contemporary art, Künstlerhaus Vienna, Angewandte Interdisciplinary Lab / cur. by the Univ. of Applied Arts Vienna, and many more.

MICHAEL FISCHER, Instant Composition Conductor / art. dir. of the VIO, works on the speech immanence of sounds and their dramatic evidence on the tenor saxophone / the feedback-saxophone he developed, as well as on ad hoc soundscapes and fixed media compositions in collaboration with writers of experimental literature. He has collaborated with Irene Schweizer, William Parker, Denis Charles, Peter Kowald, Karoline Leblanc, Ingrid Jensen, Burton Greene, John Edwards, Mark Sanders, Marcos Baggiani, Didi Kern a.m.o.. As Instant Composition Conductor he leads international improvisation orchestras and temporary large ensembles for festivals and guest-lectures/universities in Europe, Canada, the USA and Japan, f.e. at the The Johns Hopkins Univ. Maryland/USA, Univ. of California Irvine/USA, Festival International de Improvisación Madrid/ES, Wien Modern/AT, Deriva Jazz Festival/ES, Traumzeitfestival/GER, Creative Music Festival/JAP, Renzo Piano Building/IT, Univ. for Music & Performing Arts Vienna/AT, Bruckner Univ. Linz/AT, Janacek Academy of Music & Performing Arts/CZ, Univ. of Montenegro Music Academy/ME, Univ. of Architecture Vaduz/LI a.m.o..

The VIENNA IMPROVISERS ORCHESTRA was founded by Michael Fischer in 2004; it is one of the first and most continuously active improvisation orchestras worldwide.

The work of the VIO is supported by the City of Vienna Culture, Austrian Federal authorities and SKE Fonds.