From November 30 to December 2, a special conference, titled Improvisation: New Orleans’ Gift to the Modern World, will take place as a part of the end of the city’s Tricentennial festivities.

The three-day conference will “explore connections New Orleans musical improvisation shares with other arts- theater, literature, cuisine, storytelling and visual arts.” The event is inspired by Randy Fertel’s book, A Taste for Chaos: The Art of Literary Improvisation. The conference intends to adopt the book’s idea that improvisation explores tensions between structure and anti-structure, form and formlessness, and reason and unreason.

The conference will be hosted by The Fertel Foundation, in collaboration with The New Orleans Jazz Museum, the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Foundation, the Historic New Orleans Collection and The New Quorum. “Our team has assembled an amazing cast of presenters and performers from diverse fields to explore improvisation and to consider New Orleans’ role in making improvisation a household word”, said author and conference organizer Randy Fertel.

The lineup includes a culinary kick-off on Friday; multiple panels and engaging discussions; a Saturday evening performance by Tulane professor and internationally acclaimed composer and pianist, Courtney Bryan, and her quartet; master class workshops; and a silent film screening. Conference keynote sessions are free, with first-come first-serve seating. Tickets to Friday’s Culinary Kick-off are on sale for $20. And tickets for Sunday’s Master Class Workshops at NOCCA are $25. Both can be purchased through the conference website. The full schedule and more information can be found at www.improvconferencenola.com.