5 of the Best Music Spaces in the Hudson Valley + Catskills – According to Drew Frankel of Assembly + Impact Concerts
Former schools, factories, farms, and studios reimagined as stages across the region.
This winter, we’re settling into a new rhythm at Escape Club: every other week, we ask someone with real experience and insight to share a quick “Top 5” from their world: design, hospitality, food, nature, and the quieter corners of culture that shape how we travel. It’s a chance to hear directly from people who genuinely live and breathe these spaces and experiences, and a small bonus for our paid subscribers.
We kicked off the series with Casey Scieszka — writer, innkeeper, and co-owner of Spruceton Inn — who shared her Top 5 motels across the U.S., drawing from years spent restoring, running, and reimagining one herself. Tom Roberts of Homestedt and North Branch Cider Mill weighed in on the most charming shops, and most recently, the Hudson Valley–based team behind Big Towel shared their Top 5 saunas — a winter-ready reset rooted in ritual and design. In the last edition, Hudson Valley wedding photographer Joshua Brown later followed with his 5 most photogenic venues across the Catskills and Hudson Valley.
For this week’s installment, we’re turning to Hudson Valley–based Drew Frankel — artist manager, live event producer, and co-founder of Kingston venue Assembly and Impact Concerts — for his take on five standout music spaces in the region.
5 of the Best Music Spaces in the Hudson Valley + Catskills — According to Drew Frankel of Assembly + Impact Concerts
Drew Frankel operates at the intersection of artist development and live performance. As co-founder of Impact Concerts and partner in Impact Artist Management, he works both behind the scenes and on the ground, guiding artists’ long-term careers while producing music and lifestyle events throughout the Hudson Valley and Catskills.
In late 2024, Impact opened Assembly in Kingston, transforming the former St. Joseph’s Elementary School — a 1912 brick building that operated for more than a century — into a new live music venue.
The building, now home to a mix of creative tenants including Upstate Art Weekend and several studios and small businesses, has taken on a second life as a cultural hub.
Impact’s management roster includes artists such as Al Olender, Mikaela Davis, and Gipsy Kings, while past projects span Grammy-winning collaborations across genres. Through Impact Concerts, Drew curates events that bring internationally recognized musicians into intimate, thoughtfully designed spaces across the region — places where sound, setting, and atmosphere carry equal weight.
That dual perspective — artist and venue, stage and setting — makes him a natural voice for this list, especially in a region where architecture often defines the atmosphere.
Many of the Hudson Valley’s most compelling music venues weren’t originally built for concerts at all. Former schools, railroad factories, farm breweries, private homes — these spaces have been reimagined through music, shaped as much by architecture and history as by acoustics.
Below, Drew shares five of the best repurposed spaces turned music venues in the region.
Enjoy,
– Erin + the EB team