Originally scheduled for March 2020, the 35th annual Seattle Improvised Music Festival rises from the ashes of COVID-19 in the form of a streaming video festival. Two video programs will be presented, on September 27 at 5 PM, and October 4 at 7 PM (Pacific Time).

SIMF curators Haley Freedlund, Chris Icasiano, and Steve Peters  have invited four esteemed visiting artists – clarinetist Ben Goldberg (Berkeley), New York saxophonists Joe McPhee and Sam Newsome, pianist Dana Reason (Corvallis) – to perform featured solo sets, and a small but mighty sampling of Seattle artists representing several generations and a wide range of musical activity.

The first night is presented as part of Baltimore’s venerable High Zero Festival (Sept. 24 – 27), with each program co-curated by a presenter in a different city: Elastic Arts (Chicago, 9/24), High Mayhem (Santa Fe, 9/25), High Zero (Baltimore, 9/26), and SIMF (9/27). We are thrilled to have been invited to participate in this innovative response to current conditions and to be associated with these respected organizations and artists, and we urge you to check out the other nights. Additionally, SIMF will present a separate video program a week later (Oct. 4). See the full festival schedule for streaming links and artist line-up for each event.

Presented by Nonsequitur, with generous assistance from 4Culture and the Raynier Institute & Foundation. We are especially grateful to the Royal Room for providing a venue in which to record our video programs.