2025 Improv Spaces Music Festival Announced

Round Lake, N.Y. – The second annual Improv Spaces Music Fest will take place on June 7th, 2025 from 10am-10pm at the Round Lake Auditorium (2 Wesley Ave, Round Lake, NY) with doors opening at 9h30am and a community brunch. The festival, presented by Improv Spaces and sponsored by Saratoga Arts Community Arts Grant, the Charles R. Wood Foundation, Stewart’s Shops, and the Times-Union, brings together local Capital Region performers and those from New Jersey and New York City.

Co-directors of Improv Spaces, harpist Alex Chang and percussionist Adam Forman hope to bring a focus on Capital Region performers and to develop the area as a major hub for improvisation and experimental music. They are thrilled about the 35 artists who will be performing at the festival, including the new 13-person-strong Improv Spaces Ensemble, which is comprised of some of the most talented local improvising musicians in the Capital Region including Jess Bowen, violin; Sabrina Trueheart, nylon guitar; Justin Holden, guitar; Alex Chang, electric harp; Jason Handron, string bass; Christian Thomas, bass and synthesizer; Adam Elabd, winds, bass, and vocals; Adam Tinkle, woodwinds/electronics; Cousin Angus, brass, vocals, and electronics Karen Dazzler, sax; Adam Forman, drums; Nicholas Kopp aka djdrummernk, percussion and electronics; and Matt Weston, percussion.

Adam Forman underlines the range of musical styles being offered by the music festival: “Looking at the list of performers, it's great to see folks from different backgrounds — classical, pop, singer songwriter, jazz, free improv, visual art — all coming together to be a part of one event.”

The range of festival performances will also include the Human Rites Trio with Jason Kao Hwang (composer and violin/viola), Ken Filiano (string bass), and Andrew Drury (drum set) — a meditation on music, intention, the spirit and human compassion; local blue grass band Special Creek brought together by bassist Bob Zink with Sam Katz (mandolin), Deena Chappell (multi-instrumentalist), Andy Roth (multi-instrumentalist), Tim Barker (guitarist), and Adam Forman (percussionist); a screening of a special edit of the film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea with a live score by a fusion of synthesizers from across the decades with Electronic Cinema (Joe Fee, Ed Fritz, and Mike Sojkowski); steel drum with Shiloh Wilson and band members including Lee Gnau (bass/guitar), and Erik Pravel (drums); pipe organ collaboration with Jonathan Fuller (organ) and Nicholas Kopp aka djdrummernk; the immersive acoustic and electronic sounds of duo Ethan Cohn (bass) and MAYSUN (percussion); and native flute with musician and storyteller Joseph Bruchac.

Since Fall 2024, Improv Spaces has been artists in residence at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall where they have been developing an incubator project “Sonic Explorations in Troy” as a collaboration with their trio Rock City Falls Trio with bassist Jason Handron and the visual artist and multi-instrumentalist Manuel J. Perez III. The collaboration, which has incorporated community input through workshopping and discussions at Mt. Ida Preservation Hall and the workshop performance in February at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall will be premiered at the festival.