2026 Improv Spaces Music Festival Takes Over Saratoga Arts this Labor Day Weekend

Saratoga Springs, N.Y. - Sunday, Sept 6th, 2026 from 11am-9pm Improv Spaces Music Festival will be showcasing the work of more than 20 musicians and artists working in improvisation at the newly renovated Saratoga Arts. From experimental electronics and percussion to percussive tap dancing, from contemporary classical and new music to free improvisation on the organ, piano, electric harp, and projection, this unique festival will enthrall audiences with top talent from the Capital Region, NYC and beyond. Advanced tickets are only $20 and the festival is FREE for children under 12.

Alex Chang is Improv Spaces co-director and festival co-organizer with Adam Forman, she notes: “We’re thrilled to be collaborating with Saratoga Arts and the newly renovated theater and arts center with performances, artist Q&As, workshops, and vendors that include folks who are supporting, publishing and presenting improvising musicians up here in the region. We want to create a vibrant space for musicians and audiences that will provide opportunities for networking, experiencing the music beyond the performances. We want folks to spend the day, hang out, grab a bite, and experience some incredible live performances.” Forman continues: “This year's festival aims to break down the barrier between the audience and performers. There’s going to be workshops, presentations, Q&A's, and discussions designed to get folks more engaged and deeper into the conversation. We'll also utilize multiple areas of the arts center simultaneously.”

Featured guests at the festival will include The Next Jazz Legacy artist tap dancer Melissa Almaguer, who has performed at the Lincoln Center, The Joyce Theater, National Sawdust, Joe’s Pub, Kaufman Music Center, and The Jazz Gallery. Almaguer will be showcasing her new solo set with tap dancing, percussion, and electronics. The festival will also present legendary free jazz composer, percussionist, head of the non-profit Continuum Arts and Culture and curator of the Soup and Sound salon series Andrew Drury with veteran improvising pianist Alexis Marcelo. Drury has been held as “one of most innovative and bold drummers on the modern music scene” by All About Jazz and is a pioneer of extended techniques for percussion, most notably in the use of drums as wind instruments. Marcelo has collaborated in the past with artists including GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan, Abiodun Oyewole of the Last Poets, Malcolm Mooney (CAN), Craig Harris, James Brandon Lewis, among them. Drury and Marcelo will be playing new original collaborative improvisations at the festival.

Hypercube, the adventurous new music quartet comprised of Andrea Lodge, piano; Jay Sorce, electric guitar; Erin Rogers, saxophones; and Chris Graham percussion, continue to push at cutting edge of chamber music and are known for their experimentation and virtuosity. The ensemble will perform a selection of contemporary works spanning electric and acoustic worlds including: Spinning, Touched, Undreamt; Snow (2022) by Corie Rose Soumah; Don’t Panic- II, Maze, (2023) by Mike Zhou; Color Fields (2006) by Mikel Kuehn; and Voided Cross (for Michael Heizer) IV. Relentless, Clangorous, (2018) by Eric Wubbels. Among venues Hypercube has appeared as guest artists include The Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, The Garrick Theatre in Newfoundland, and New York’s Roulette Intermedium.

Forman notes: “We’re particularly excited about having Hypercube up from NYC. They’re really the only true ‘classical’ ensemble on the program. They’re conservatory-trained, work extensively with composers, and may be the only group you see reading from music stands. But they’re also incredible improvisers and have a truly unique musical vocabulary.”

New York City-based synthesist and composer-improviser Matthew Ryals and co-curator of the experimental music series Artifact will be performing a set titled Rotational Motifs – An Improvisation for Solo Modular Synthesizer and leading a workshop for musicians and non-musicians titled Matthew Ryals: Developing an Improvisational Language with the Modular Synthesizer. Matt Weston, student of Arthur Brooks, Bill Dixon, and member of the Arthur Brooks Ensemble V, will talk about his innovative practice and perform a solo set of his original composition For Arthur Brooks on percussion and electronics.

Improv Spaces resident trio Rock City Falls Trio (Alex Chang, electric harp; Jason Handron, bass, Adam Forman, drums) is developing a new experimental work on the Earth and environment with multidisciplinary artist Carlin Ma to debut at the festival. The performance workshop connects festival audiences with their relationship to nature through music, video and images taken around the world, and the audience’s own experiences and conversation.

Joseph and Jesse Bruchac, who are well-known for their work in the community with Indigenous cultural preservation including through storytelling and improvisational music with Native flute and drum will open the festival. The Improv Spaces Ensemble, which is comprised of some of the most talented regional improvising musicians, will close the evening with a collaboratively composed site-responsive piece created specifically for the venue and festival. Members participating in the finale piece with their unique instrumentation include Adam Tinkle on saxophone and flute; Chuck Ver Straeten with voice as instrument; Bernadette Speach on piano and toy piano; Jeffrey Schanzer on classical and electric guitars; Christian Cocco, electric guitar, bass and synthesizer; and Alex Chang on electric harp; with improvised video projection by video artist Derick Noetzel. The ensemble brings together Capital Region improvising musicians working across a wide range of instruments, musical languages, and approaches. Rooted in collaboration and experimentation, the ensemble creates original performances through collective improvisation and interdisciplinary exchange.

“We’re excited about being in the Saratoga Arts space. The Improv Spaces Ensemble and the Rock City Falls Trio often practices here, and we see it really as one of our musical homes for us in the region. In fact, you could say that Improv Spaces was born in the basement studios of Saratoga Arts. We’re so appreciative of being able to work intimately with the space to collaboratively compose a new original piece for improvisation for the festival as the ensemble. It will be the big finish to the festival and Derick Noetzel, who is well known in the music scene for his immersive interactive projection, will be improvising visuals in the theater with us for the grand finale,” says Chang.