Carnegie Hall

(NEW YORK, NY; December 9, 2025)—Ensemble Connect kicks off the seventh season of its Up Close series in collaboration with 2025–2026 Perspectives artist Marin Alsop on Saturday, January 31 in the Weill Music Room of Carnegie Hall’s Resnick Education Wing. This intimate performance, curated by Alsop, features music exclusively written by contemporary classical composers. In this concert, Ensemble Connect performs Jessie Montgomery’s Strum; Jennifer Higdon’s Book of Brass; Emma Lou Diemer’s Quartet for Trumpet, Horn, Trombone, and Piano; and Christopher Rouse’s Rotae Passiones, which is also conducted by Ms. Alsop.

Ensemble Connect’s Up Close performances explore different approaches to presenting classical music by experimenting with concert formats, audience engagement, and multimedia to activate the performance space in exciting new ways. Click here to get a special glimpse into the series. A second Up Close performance in collaboration with genre-bending clarinetist David Krakauer follows on Wednesday, May 6.

In addition to January’s Up Close performance, Ensemble Connect’s two upcoming performances in Weill Recital Hall also exclusively feature music by American composers as part of Carnegie Hall’s United in Sound: America at 250 festival. George Lewis’s eagerly anticipated New York premiere of Broke (commissioned by Carnegie Hall) is featured on Ensemble Connect’s concert on Tuesday, February 17. The program also features Valerie Coleman’s six movement ‘tour de force’ Portraits of Langston; Barber’s iconic Adagio for Strings; Joplin’s “The Entertainer” and “Paragon Rag” arranged for string quartet; and Ives’s String Quartet No. 1, "From the Salvation Army."

Ensemble Connect offers their final Weill Recital Hall performance this season on Monday, April 13, featuring Joan Tower’s “Petroushskates,” inspired—as its name suggests—by both Stravinsky’s Pétrouchka and the flowing motions of figure skating. The concert also features Wynton Marsalis’s A Fiddler's Tale Suite, Michael Tilson Thomas’s Street Song, and Bernstein’s Dance Suite.

Program Information
ENSEMBLE CONNECT UP CLOSE
Saturday, January 31 at 7:30 p.m.
Resnick Education Wing

Ensemble Connect
Marin Alsop, Artistic Partner and Conductor

JESSIE MONTGOMERY Strum
JENNFIER HIGDON Book of Brass
DIEMER: Quartet for Trumpet, Horn, Trombone, and Piano
ROUSE Rotae Passiones
______________________________________________________________

ENSEMBLE CONNECT
Tuesday, February 17 at 7:30 p.m.
Weill Recital Hall

GEORGE LEWIS Broke (NY Premiere, commissioned by Carnegie Hall)
VALERIE COLEMAN Portraits of Langston
BARBER Adagio for Strings
JOPLIN “The Entertainer” (arr. for string quartet by Beyer)
JOPLIN “Paragon Rag” (arr. for string quartet by Zinn)
IVES String Quartet No. 1, "From the Salvation Army"
______________________________________________________________

ENSEMBLE CONNECT
Monday, April 13 at 7:30 p.m.
Weill Recital Hall

JOAN TOWER "Petroushskates"
MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS Street Song
BERNSTEIN Dance Suite
WYNTON MARSALIS A Fiddler's Tale Suite
______________________________________________________________

ENSEMBLE CONNECT UP CLOSE
Wednesday, May 6 at 7:30 p.m.
Resnick Education Wing

Ensemble Connect
David Krakauer, Artistic Partner

Program to be announced ______________________________________________________________


Ensemble Connect
Ensemble Connect is made up of extraordinary young professional classical musicians residing in the US who take part in a two-year fellowship program created in 2007 by Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education. The program prepares fellows for careers that combine musical excellence with teaching, community engagement, advocacy, entrepreneurship, and leadership by offering top-quality performance opportunities, intensive professional development, and partnerships throughout the fellowship with New York City public schools.

On the concert stage and in schools and communities, Ensemble Connect has earned accolades from critics and audiences alike for the quality of the concerts, the fresh and open-minded approach to programming, and the ability to actively engage any audience.

Exemplary performers, dedicated teachers, and passionate advocates of music throughout the community, the forward-looking musicians of Ensemble Connect are redefining what it means to be a musician in the 21st century.

For more information about Ensemble Connect, visit ensembleconnect.org

******

Ensemble Connect is a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education.

Lead funding has been provided by Max H. Gluck Foundation, the Hearst Foundations, The Kovner Foundation, Phyllis and Charles Rosenthal, Beatrice Santo Domingo, and Hope and Robert F. Smith.

Global Ambassadors: Michael ByungJu Kim and Kyung Ah Park, Hope and Robert F. Smith, and Maggie and Richard Tsai.

Additional support has been provided by the Kathi and Peter Arnow Foundation, Ronald E. Blaylock and Petra Pope, E.H.A. Foundation, Barbara G. Fleischman, Clive and Anya Gillinson, Susan and Elihu Rose Foundation, Sarah Billinghurst Solomon and Howard Solomon, and Carlos Tome and Theresa Kim.

Ensemble Connect is also supported, in part, by endowment grants from The Kovner Foundation and the Estate of Eleanor Doblin Unger.

Public support is provided by the New York City Department of Education.

 

 

Ticket Information

Tickets can be purchased on the Carnegie Hall website, carnegiehall.org, by calling 212-247-7800, or visiting the Carnegie Hall Box Office at West 57th Street and Seventh Avenue.

For more information on discount ticket programs, including those for students, Notables members, and Bank of America customers, visit carnegiehall.org/discounts.