First annual IMPROV SPACES Music Festival to take place at the Round Lake Auditorium

ROUND LAKE, N.Y. — Improv Spaces will be putting on the first annual IMPROV SPACES Music Festival, a five-day event featuring music and interdisciplinary collaborations, including dance and visual arts performances. The festival will run from May 29 to June 2 at the Round Lake Auditorium, located at 2 Wesley Ave. in Round Lake.

Improv Spaces is a non-profit organization based in Upstate New York that works with artists locally, around the United States, as well as, internationally. Created by electric acoustic harpist Alex Chang and percussionist Adam Forman, the organization aims to provide space for musicians to explore a variety of styles and for improvisation, as well as being open later for people to use when they are out of work, which is also free, or very inexpensive.

“Ever since we met, we’d been thinking about the difficulties we have as musicians and also that while there are a lot of places in Troy that allow for more experimental music and experimental jazz and that sort of thing, but up here in Saratoga Springs, there isn’t so much of a space for that,” Chang said. “

Since January, the organization has been the music program in residence at Saratoga Arts, providing a space for musicians to participate in workshops along with being able to drop in and do improv.

The festival was born out of a recommendation from the Round Lake Auditorium and is free for the public to attend. The goal of making the five-day event free is to bring this music to the general public and families while also introducing those who may not usually listen to these genres of music to something new.

“We’d like to see the audience really engage with the performances,” Forman said in a release. “The hope is to make people curious enough to ask questions, think about what they’ve experienced, form their own opinions and inspire them long after the festival is over.”

The opening night, Wednesday, May 29, will feature an opening improvisation with Saratoga Springs poet laureate and Native flutist Joseph Bruchac, who will be playing with drummer Steve Candlen. The Rock City Falls Trio, which is composed of Chang, Forman, and  Jason Handron, will also premiere a new work called “WATER. a collaborative improv” with NYC-based visual artist Michael Miyahira (aka Mike Ming) performing action painting.

Thursday, May 30, will include a performance from Christopher Rodriguez, a New Jersey-based bomba drummer, and educator who co-organizes monthly bateys de bomba, a collective of New Jersey-based bomberos. Rodriquez will be joined by drummer Julio Evans and dancer Saiya Forty. There will also be a live scoring event by the apostophebeats orchestra for the Danish Horror film Häxan, presented by Bee Side Cassettes.

Friday will feature special performances on the Round Lake Auditorium’s historic Davis-Ferris Organ, including both improvisational pipe organ techniques as well as Baroque to Contemporary. Thomas Dressler, a Pennsylvania-based historic organist, will share the history of the Round Lake organ, play a transcribed improvisation by J.S. Bach and improvise with Gregorian chant themes. Round Lake resident and musician Jonathan Fuller will also be playing the pipe organ, with Chang and Forman for the program New Sounds for Organ Trio.

Also taking place at the festival on Friday is a mini lobster fest with the Cousins Maine lobster roll truck and Tap Truck Saratoga. These two trucks will be at the auditorium starting at 2 p.m. through the evening’s performances, allowing the opportunity for attendees to come early and enjoy each other’s company while learning a bit about the festival’s musicians, and the festival in general, leading up to that evening’s performances.

Saturday, June 1, will include a new work, “Swamp Smartweed, a real-time vegetal composition” by New York-based choreographer/dancer Andrea Haenggi in collaboration with guitarist On Ka’a Davis. There will also be a special performance of a new live score to accompany a unique cut of the classic Fritz Lang film Metropolis by internationally acclaimed music composer, director and multi-instrumentalist Joe Fee and his collaborators Ed Fritz and Mike Sojkowski.

The final day of the festival, Sunday, June 2, will feature a midday bluegrass jam session and potluck lunch, food sponsored by  Price Chopper | Market 32, with local string bassist Bob Zink.

The variety of music and performances across the five days was intentional, according to Chang, who shared that it is her and Forman’s hope that through attending the festival people can experience things that might not have tried otherwise.

“We really wanted to show the variety –  people always just assume it’s jazz, which of course we’re going to do as well, but we wanted to be able to showcase all these different types of improvisation from Baroque through like bluegrass to also improvisation collaboration,” Chang said.

“We really hope that folks will be open to different types of music, and leave having experienced something that they haven’t experienced before. Maybe even think about doing it again. Bringing live music to folks is special, and I think with improvisation too, it is about being there and being present and it’s about, as a musician, feeling the other musicians but also as the the audience being able to hear the musicians and music live while also being in the presence of the performers.”

For more information about the festival, times of the performances and other information about Improv Spaces, visit https://improvspaces.wordpress.com