Brooklyn Free Spirit Festival
Brooklyn Free Spirit Festival, started in 2022, is a grassroots gathering of artists and music-lovers conceived by Artistic Director Mara Rosenbloom with production support from Melanie Dyer and Kyoko Kitamura, the three members of the Siren Xypher Collective. The festival comprises performances, workshops, a listening session and an interview of a legendary artist, all taking place at the musician-owned space Ibeam. Food and drinks are provided to facilitate conversation between set changes.
The Brooklyn Free Spirit Festival convenes improvised music creatives and audiences to promote freedom of expression, inventiveness and social-bonding as an antidote to the oppression of all life forms.
Brooklyn Free Spirit Festival 2026
BROOKLYN FREE SPIRIT FESTIVAL
Produced by the Siren Xypher Collective with support from Alan Feller & Creative Music Studio
July 11th & 12th at IBEAM BROOKLYN
168 7th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215
$20 Admission / day | cash or Venmo
Daily Admission includes access to all daytime and evening events! Light food and drinks provided (free) to facilitate conversation.
Saturday, July 11
5:00pm KYOKO KITAMURA & RACHEL BERNSEN WORKSHOP (open to all!)
Vocalist/Improviser Kyoko Kitamura & Choreographer/Dancer Rachel Bernsen join forces for an integrated workshop that invites participants to rediscover the natural unity between sound and movement with two highly experienced artist-educators. Instruments welcome but not required.
7:30pm Selendis S.A. Johnson / Hans Young-Binter / Josh Matthews
Selendis S.A. Johnson vibraphone Hans Young-Binter piano Josh Matthews drums
8:30pm Janice Lowe’s Museotry
Janice Lowe piano, voice, composition
Olithea Anglin voice & electronics / Yohann Potico bass guitar
Sunday, July 12
3:00pm ZEENA PARKINS WORKSHOP
Filling the Hearspace: Never to Sound Again the Same
Experience multi-valent modes of listening through improvisation and expanded musical entanglements: following energetic pathways, tuning our engagements, collective knowing, collaboration and generosity (Open to musical improvisers with some previous experience)
5:00pm Listening Session & In-Person Interview: COOPER-MOORE
90-minutes of immersion into the iconic composer, pianist, instrument builder, storyteller Cooper-Moore’s multi-decade body of work, including rarely heard recordings from Cooper-Moore’s personal archive, and an in-person conversation moderated by pianist/composer/improviser Mara Rosenbloom
7:30pm Zeena Parkins / Nate Wooley / Ryan Sawyer
Zeena Parkins Electric Harp+Objects / Nate Wooley Trumpet+Objects/ Ryan Sawyer Drums
8:30pm Interstellar Duo
Jamal R. Moore Woodwinds, Electronics, Percussion / Warren Crudup III Drums
Scenes from Brooklyn Free Spirit Festival 2025 which took place on July 12th and 13th:
BROOKLYN FREE SPIRIT FESTIVAL
Produced by Siren Xypher Collective with support from Alan Feller & Creative Music Studio
The Free Spirit Festival convenes improvised music creatives and audiences to promote freedom of expression, inventiveness, & social-bonding as an antidote to the oppression of all life forms.
July 12th & 13th 2025 at IBEAM BROOKLYN
168 7th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215
$20 Admission / day | cash or Venmo. Daily Admission includes access to all daytime and evening events. Light food and beverages provided.
Saturday, July 12
5:00pm Improviser’s Workshop (open to all)
Lifelong ecstatic improvising pianist & 40-year Qigong Practitioner Kazzrie Jaxen offers a qigong workshop for creative improvisers. Wuji Gong: Skill of Entering the Supreme Unknown
(comfortable clothes suggested)
7:30pm Siren Xypher
Melanie Dyer – Viola / Kyoko Kitamura – Voice / Mara Rosenbloom – Piano & Voice
8:30pm Kazzrie Jaxen SOLO
Piano
Sunday, July 13
3:00pm Improvisation Workshop (open to all)
Anthony Braxton collaborators Kyoko Kitamura and Chris DiMeglio guide participants through Anthony Braxton’s Musical Systems and beyond. 90-minute workshop in two parts. For inquiries about this workshop, email contact at 98.86.42.220
Part I 3 PM to 3:45 PM: text and graphic scores by various composers including Anthony Braxton, open to all including non-musicians.
Part II 3:45 PM to 4:30 PM: musical improvisation based on Anthony Braxton’s concepts including Ghost Trance Music, open to all. Ability to read music recommended for Part II but not required. Score excerpts provided. Instruments welcome but not required.
5:00pm Listening Session & In-Person Interview: AMINA CLAUDINE MYERS
90-minutes of immersion into the luminary pianist/composer’s multi-decade body of work. Conversation moderated by W.S. Tkweme, Pan-African Studies Professor at University of Louisville & 25 year radio programmer at stations across the US. Archival support from Ras Moshe Burnett. (Curated by Melanie Dyer)
7:30pm DoYeon Kim / Cooper-Moore / Satoshi Takeishi
DoYeon Kim – Gayageum & Voice / Cooper-Moore – Homemade Instruments / Satoshi Takeishi – Drums & Percussion
8:30pm Mazz Swift & Ana Luisa Díaz de Cossío
Violin + Violin
Scenes from Brooklyn Free Spirit Festival 2024:
Poster from the inaugural Brooklyn Free Spirit Festival in 2024:
