Maja von Kriegstein & Clio Van Aerde
Free Improv Orchestra
Intensive Workshop, English/Deutsch, 2 SWS, 2 ECTS
Fridays and Saturdays, 7 dates:
Friday, 8.5., 16-19 h
Saturday, 9.5., 11-14 h
Friday, 22.5., 16-19 h
Friday 29.5., 10-17 h: excursion to Sommerbad Kreuzberg „Prinzenbad“
Saturday 30.5., 11-16 h (room tba)
Friday 19.6., 16-19 h
Saturday 20.6., 10-14 h (final presentation with guests, possibly open air at Fête de la musique on Sunday)
Lietzenburgerstr. 45, room 103

Registration on Moodle starts on 9.4.2026: https://moodle.udk-berlin.de/moodle/course/view.php?id=3056
Enrollment Key: improv

How can free expression and moving forward together as a group can become one thing? In times of parallel public spheres, political radicalization and the hollowing out of democracy, the Free Improv Orchestra tries to make a contribution to the work against that dynamic. As a temporary, quite diverse ensemble, they test and further develop an entire toolbox of improvisational performance practices that might be helpful in working towards more permeable structures within the diverse body of a society. We take off from sound related practices, but will not stay there, aiming for a politically engaged notion of improvisation, as a training for collective action facing an unforseeable and in many senses quite worrying future.

The focus of this semester is score writing. We will deal with the relationship between written performance instructions and free improvisation. The first weeks are dedicated to working on historical and contemporary milestones of the score-writing tradition: Cornelius Cardew (ed.), Scratch Music; The Fluxus Performance Workbook; Yoko Ono, Grapefruit; the London Improvisers Orchestra; the Berlin Improvisers Orchestra; Giant Owl Research Center; Andrew Walshe, and many others. This phase concludes with a weekend block at the Sommerbad Kreuzberg “Prinzenbad,” featuring the Waterborne Scores by the artists’ collective Billy Jump (2025) of which two members will also be present. In the second part of the semester, students will develop their own scores and create a final performance.

Fulfilment criteria for ungraded accreditation: very regular attendance to the meetings, development of personal scores (solo or as a group), participation in final performance.

Clio Van Aerde is a transdisciplinary artist and scenographer based in Esch-sur-Alzette (LU). Trained in performance at ArtEZ hoogeschool van de kunsten, Arnhem and scenography at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna, her practice spans performance art, choreography, site-specific and durational art. Her work approaches attention as a poetic and subversive force, engaging overlooked relations between bodies, spaces, and temporalities. She was awarded the Edward Steichen Award (2024) (https://www.edward-steichen-award.lu/en/laureates/2024) and alternates between solo practice, stage and costume design for theatre, and collective work with Billy Jump and Antropical. More information on: https://cliovanaerde.com and @earthly_clio.

Maja von Kriegstein is a multi-instrumentalist, performance maker and university lecturer based in Berlin. Her predominantly collectively developed work includes improvised music and experimental music theater. In these works, socio-political issues are often embedded in the context of experimental music. Maja studied Music Education/classical Piano at UdK Berlin and Manhattan School of Music NY and philosophy at Humboldt University Berlin. In 2025 she graduated from ArtEZ hoogeschool van de kunsten / Arnhem (NL) with a MA-Degree in Performance Practices / Choreography. Her current research deals with echo chambers vs. open resonant spaces. She is a member of the Berlin Improvisers Orchestra as well as the collectives DETOX and BILLY JUMP. More information on www.majavonkriegstein.eu, www.detox.wtf, www.mannausobst.eu.