Carnegie Hall

Learn creative tools to engage today’s audiences and spark joy and connection with your music through this self-paced video series for collegiate and early professional performers, featuring guidance from Ensemble Connect alums and other leaders in the field.

Skills: Instrumental
Topics: Audience Engagement, Teaching Artistry
Focus: Instruction, Inspiration
Time commitment: 5 minutes–4 Hours

In these mini–master classes, alums of Carnegie Hall’s national youth ensembles (NYO-USA, NYO2, and NYO Jazz) discuss a range of topics, including mastering fast passages, conquering stage fright, essential items for your instrument case, and other pro tips.

Skills: Instrumental
Topics: Stage Fright, Reed Making, Practice Journal, Techniques, Performance
Focus: Instruction
Time commitment: 5–10 minutes

Delve into wide-ranging master classes by top players from the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and Berliner Philharmoniker as they train the next generation of talented instrumentalists.

Skills: Instrumental
Topics: Orchestra, Strings, Woodwinds, Brass
Focus: Instruction (Master Classes)
Time commitment: 10–30 minutes

Pianists Jonathan Biss and Richard Goode provide technical tips and musical insights as they mentor young musicians in piano works by Debussy, Brahms, Beethoven, and Schubert.

Skills: Instrumental
Topics: Piano, Sonatas, Preludes, Impromptus, Klavierstücke
Focus: Instruction (Master Classes)
Time commitment: 5 minutes–1 hour

In Fifty for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire, a diverse mix of 50 composers share their works to create a new trove of resources for training young musicians. This initiative features the Ligeti, Argus, and Friction quartets, as well as other participating ensembles.

Skills: Instrumental
Topics: Strings, String Quartets, New Music
Focus: Instruction (Workshop), Inspiration
Time commitment: 5–45 minutes

Clarinetist, saxophonist, and composer Paquito D’Rivera and members of his ensemble discuss Latin jazz roots and rhythms, and the importance of communication and continued learning as a jazz artist. Workshop participants and faculty perform together in culminating concerts.

Skills: Instrumental
Topics: Jazz, Improvisation
Focus: Instruction (Workshop), Inspiration
Time commitment: 2–5 minutes

Join Ensemble Connect musicians in a series of interactive videos that introduce core musicianship skills through guided listening activities.

Topics: Articulation, Texture, Theme and Variations, Ensemble Music Making
Activities: Guided Listening, Discussion
Time commitment: 15 minutes–2 hours
Grades: 6–12