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.
Major funding has been provided by The Diller–von Furstenberg Family Foundation, Susan and Edward C. Forst and Goldman Sachs Gives, the Max H. Gluck Foundation, the Irving Harris Foundation, The Kovner Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Lester S. Morse Jr., Phyllis and Charles Rosenthal, The Edmond de Rothschild Foundations, The Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund, and Ernst & Young LLP.
Additional support has been provided by Nicola and Beatrice Bulgari, Barbara G. Fleischman, Leslie and Tom Maheras, Susan and Elihu Rose Foundation, Sarah Billinghurst Solomon and Howard Solomon, and Trust for Mutual Understanding.
Public support is provided by the New York City Department of Education, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
Ensemble Connect is also supported, in part, by an endowment grant from The Kovner Foundation.
Written a year before Bernstein’s highly publicized podium debut with the New York Philharmonic in 1943, the early Sonata for Clarinet and Piano combines a warmly lyrical idiom with the jazzy exuberance of his later ballets and musical theater scores. Bernstein dedicated the sonata to clarinetist David Oppenheim, who would later produce his path-breaking musical lectures for CBS Television’s Omnibus program.
Born in 1980, Brooklyn-based Missy Mazzoli is one of the most versatile and acclaimed composers of her generation. This engaging, percussion-rich chamber piece bears her fingerprints in its exuberant melodies, pulsating rhythms, kaleidoscopic colors, and minimalist-style repeating patterns. By turns controlled and chaotic, Still Life with Avalanche was commissioned by the new-music ensemble eighth blackbird.
Frustrated by the inability of conductors and orchestras to master the complex rhythmic vocabulary of his Short Symphony in the early 1930s, Copland arranged the score for clarinet, piano, and string quartet, hoping to improve its chances of being performed. Both the Sextet and the Short Symphony illustrate the propulsive, sharply etched rhythms and wide-open intervals that are Copland’s stylistic trademarks.
Scored for string quartet and tape, this powerful work pays eloquent homage to those who suffered and perished in the Nazi death camps. Reich used digital samples of Holocaust survivors’ recorded testimonies to generate much of the music’s thematic material and kinetic energy. Like many of his other pieces, Different Trains is characterized by hypnotic repetition, multilayered textures, and kaleidoscopic rhythm and melody patterns.
Ensemble Connect--formerly known as Ensemble ACJW--was created in 2007 by Carnegie Hall's
Executive and Artistic Director Clive Gillinson and The Juilliard School's President Joseph
W. Polisi. Ensemble Connect is a
two-year fellowship program for the finest young professional classical musicians in the
United States that prepares them for careers combining musical excellence with teaching,
community engagement, advocacy, entrepreneurship, and leadership. It offers them
top-quality performance opportunities, intensive professional development, and the
opportunity to partner throughout the fellowship with a New York City public school.
Ensemble Connect fellows--chosen for their musicianship, but also for their leadership
qualities and commitment to music education--come from some of the best music schools in
the country, including the Curtis Institute of Music, Eastman School of Music, The
Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory, Peabody Institute,
Stony Brook University, University of Southern California, and Yale School of Music.
Ensemble Connect has earned accolades from critics and audiences alike for the quality of
its performances as well as its fresh and open--minded approach, performing a wide range of
music--from centuries past to works written days before an event-in a variety of
performance venues. The group performs its own series at Carnegie Hall and has regularly
appeared at The Juilliard School's Paul Hall and other venues throughout New York City,
including (Le) Poisson Rouge nightclub in Greenwich Village, Galapagos Art Space and
National Sawdust in Brooklyn, and SubCulture in NoHo. As part of a partnership with
Skidmore College that began in 2007, Ensemble Connect gives master classes for university
students and performs for the Saratoga Springs community in both concert halls and in
informal settings around town.
Along with performance opportunities at premier venues in New York City and beyond,
Ensemble Connect fellows each partner with a New York City public school to share their
artistry with--and become central resources for--music classrooms in the five boroughs.
Ensemble Connect fellows also take part in community work through the Weill Music
Institute's Musical Connections program, in which they perform at multiple non-traditional
music venues across New York City, including healthcare settings, correctional facilities,
and senior-service organizations. Throughout the two-year program, Ensemble Connect fellows
participate in rigorous, ongoing professional development to ensure that they gain the
necessary skills to be successful in all areas of the program and to become leaders in
their field. Areas of emphasis include artistic excellence, engagement strategies on and
off the stage, advocacy, professional skills, and preparation for their in-school
work.
Moving on to the next stage of their careers, Ensemble Connect's 101 alumni are now making
an impact on the national and international musical landscape in a wide variety of artistic
and educational arenas. Continuing the strong bonds formed through the program, in 2011 the
alumni formed the chamber music collective Decoda, which has been named an affiliate
ensemble of Carnegie Hall.
Exemplary performers, dedicated teachers, and advocates for music throughout the
community, the forward-looking musicians of Ensemble Connect are redefining what it means
to be a musician in the 21st century. Visit ensembleconnect.org to learn more.
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