Ensemble Connect presents an Audience Engagement Institute on 6/8-15

Ensemble Connect - a program that prepares musicians for careers that combine musical excellence with teaching, community engagement, advocacy, entrepreneurship, and leadership - presents its first Audience Engagement Institute for established chamber ensembles in Carnegie Hall's Resnick Education Wing from June 8-15, 2017.

After an in-depth application process, five established chamber groups from across the United States have been selected to participate in Ensemble Connect's eight-day series of tuition-free workshops. They are: the Additive Color Ensemble (Kansas), Heart and Sole Trio (Michigan), Calliope Brass (New York), Marquee Brass (Maryland), and Puck Quartet (New York). During the workshops, the ensembles will learn how to strengthen their professional portfolios, design and perform interactive concerts for school and community audiences, and explore strategies for building dynamic concert experiences. They will have the unique opportunity to work closely with alumni and current members of Ensemble Connect as well as with distinguished arts professionals and artists, including Angela Myles Beeching, arts career specialist; Eric Booth, author and teaching artist; Christian Capozzoli, comedian and improviser; Emily Eagen, singer, songwriter, and teaching artist; Clive Gillinson, Executive and Artistic Director of Carnegie Hall; Colin Jacobsen, violinist, composer and founding member of Brooklyn Rider and The Knights; Jessica Meyer, composer and violist; and Decoda, an affiliate ensemble of Carnegie Hall exclusively made up of Ensemble Connect alumni.

During the last two days of the Institute, the five participating chamber ensembles will give interactive performances in public schools and community venues around the greater New York City area - including the Manhattan VA Hospital, the Hudson Guild, the Manhattan Detention Complex, and AHRC - implementing what they have workshopped and created during the week.

"One of the biggest contributions our program can make to the music field is to help young ensembles develop their audience engagement skills," Director of Ensemble Connect Amy Rhodes said. "As Ensemble Connect enters its second decade, the Audience Engagement Institute will expand our reach and impact to established chamber ensembles that are actively performing. We'll offer these ensembles the tools and experiences to effectively communicate with audiences of all kinds in a way that is relevant and to interact with their listeners on a human level, creating meaningful concert experiences both for their audiences and for themselves as artists."

Overlapping this intensive workshop, current fellows of Ensemble Connect perform their final concert of the program's tenth anniversary season at Roulette in Brooklyn on Thursday, June 8 at 8:00 p.m. The program, titled Immigrant Voices, is part of a series curated by singer and composer Meredith Monk, and celebrates the voices of immigrants in our nation featuring works by Esa-Pekka Salonen, Shulamit Ran, Anna Clyne, and the next generation of international composers who have come to live and create in the United States.

About Ensemble Connect
Celebrating its 10th anniversary during the 2016-2017 season, 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 National Sawdust, (Le) Poisson Rouge nightclub in Greenwich Village, Galapagos Art Space 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, entrepreneurship, leadership, advocacy, and preparation for their in-school work.

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.

Audience Engagement Institute
Carnegie Hall's Resnick Education Wing
June 8-15

Additive Color Ensemble (Kansas)
Kai Ono, keyboards
David Berrios, saxophone
Brian Allred, flutes

Heart and Sole Trio (Michigan)
Teagan Faran, violin
Kate Acone, piano
Jonathan Hostottle, saxophone

Calliope Brass (New York)
Kate Umble Smucker, trumpet
Rebecca Steinberg, trumpet
Erin Paul, horn
Sara Mayo, trombone
Jennifer Hinkle, bass trombone

Marquee Brass (Maryland)
Brandon Cave, trumpet
Buddy Deshler, trumpet
Samuel Bessen, horn
Ricson Poonin, trombone
Michael Minor, tuba

Puck Quartet (New York)
Lily Holgate, violin
Kenneth Trotter, violin
Katharine Dryden, viola
Liam Veuve, cello
_______________________________

Thursday, June 8 at 8:00 p.m.
Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn
ENSEMBLE CONNECT

IMMIGRANT VOICES

Tickets, priced $20 (adult) and $15 (student / senior) online, or $25 (adult) and $20 (student / senior) at the door, are available for purchase at roulette.org, by calling (917) 267-0368, or at the Roulette box office at 509 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.

A program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education

Lead support for the 125 Commissions Project is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Public support for the 125 Commissions Project is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Additional funding is provided by members of Carnegie Hall's Composer Club.

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 Mr. and Mrs. Nicola Bulgari, 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