Ensemble Connect – a group of the finest young professional classical musicians based at Carnegie Hall and hailed by the New York Times as “the new face of classical music in New York” – is now based at Skidmore College. I come back to stay every six months. 18th year.
The Oct. 25 performance at Skidmore’s Arthur Zankel Music Center, which concludes the five-day residency, will spotlight South African music and include a celebration of South African Kwela in collaboration with Skidmore students. It will be done. The concert concluded with two wonderful piano quintets: Bongani Ndodana-Breen’s Safika: Three Stories of African Migration and Dvořák’s Piano Quintet No. 2, for viola, oboe and marimba. A notable work, Andile Khumalo’s “The Scream,” will also be performed. , and the piano. Together, these works suggest echoes of life, song, dance, and a connection to the land that endure despite the forces of time and change.
Ensemble Connect’s performance will be held on Friday, October 25th at 7:30pm in the Helen Filene Rudd Concert Hall of the Arthur Zankel Music Center. This event is free and open to the public. No tickets required.
The fall training session will be held at Skidmore College from October 22nd to 26th. During their stay, Ensemble Connect fellows will engage with Skidmore College students and the broader Saratoga Springs community, offering master classes, lessons, class demonstrations, and interactive performances.
Planned in collaboration with Senior Professor Evan Mack’s We Are Instrumental organization, Ensemble Connect musicians will perform with Adirondack Middle and High School students on Wednesday, Oct. 23, at the Arthur Zankel Music Center in Skidmore. An interactive music program will be presented to the audience. This outreach program will make music education more accessible to students in underserved areas.
Ensemble Connect is a two-year fellowship program that prepares exceptional young professional classical musicians for careers that combine musical excellence with education, community involvement, advocacy, entrepreneurship, and leadership. The fellowship includes a series of concerts in which musicians explore classical music in all its iterations and perform timeless music alongside new works. Since 2007, these concerts have also included Skidmore College, where Ensemble Connect takes part in residencies each October and February, bringing many members of Skidmore and the surrounding community to the unique art form of classical music. We are making it possible for you to experience it.
The biannual residencies are made possible through the generous support of David and Beverly Sanders Payne ’59 (October stay) and the Anna Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation (February stay). Programming is handled by the Faculty of Music and the Office of Special Programs.
