Ensemble Connect will present its third and final online concert of the 2020-2021 season titled Up Close: American Mosaic streamed live on Carnegie Hall's YouTube channel on Wednesday, May 19 at 7:30pm ET. The free concert, which showcases the many identities, cultures, and styles that 20th- and 21st- century composers in America bring to their music, features the nine extraordinary young professional classical musicians of Ensemble Connect in collaboration with Syrian visual artist Kevork Mourad.
American Mosaic celebrates the expression of personal identity amongst the diverse cultural mosaic that is the United States with works by Valerie Coleman, Karim Al-Zand, Paul Schoenfield, Derrick Spiva Jr., Vally Weigl, inti figgis-vizueta, and Bright Sheng. Visual artist and member of the Silkroad Ensemble, Kevork Mourad, lends his artistic vision to the performance as he draws and animates in real time to the music.
The fellows of Ensemble Connect have continuously reinvented and reimagined what it means to connect and engage with audiences online during the COVID-19 pandemic, debuting the program's first ever online performances. In November 2020 Ensemble Connect's concert,
Up Close: United Through Separation, in collaboration with composer Reena Esmail and director Nathaniel Stevens, explored the ways we invent, recreate, and imagine unity and closeness in a time of forced separation. In February,
Up Close: What Does it Mean to Be Moved? in collaboration with contemporary dance artist
Wendell Gray II and director Isabella LoRusso, explored music's power to physically and emotionally "move" people.
Ensemble Connect is a two-year fellowship program for extraordinary young professional classical musicians residing in the US that prepares them for careers combining musical excellence with teaching, community engagement, advocacy, entrepreneurship, and leadership. It offers top-quality performance opportunities, intensive professional development, and partnerships throughout the fellowship with New York City public schools. For more information about Ensemble Connect, visit
www.carnegiehall.org/ensembleconnect.
