Skidmore College and Ensemble Connect’s continuing partnership was celebrated on Valentine’s Day with a performance in the Arthur Zankel Music Center’s Helen Filene Ladd Concert Hall. The concert was well attended by students, faculty, and members of the local community.
Ensemble Connect is a two-year fellowship that consists of musicians from Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute. The program is additionally in partnership with the New York City Department of Education.
The program, created in 2007, combines music and performance with “teaching, community engagement, advocacy, entrepreneurship, and leadership,” according to the Skidmore Ensemble Connect page. Musicians spend five days on campus, in both October and February, sharing their musical excellence and bridging the gap between performance and education.
Ensemble Connect did not just engage with the college but worked outwards to the Saratoga Springs community. They shared interactive performances with Waldorf High School, Saratoga BOCES, The Summit at Saratoga, and the Home of the Good Shepherd. There were additional performances at Kru Coffee Shop, and our very own Lucy Scribner Library.
The group also gave student musicians on campus the opportunity to receive coaching from the artists. Lucky students in the Skidmore Orchestra received a performance group coaching, as did the Chamber Music Ensemble and select student composers.
Ensemble Concert’s self-proclaimed “biggest fan” Soren Barnett ‘20 admits that they have “very low self-esteem about my viola abilities but working with them somehow always makes me feel more confident, inspired, and optimistic.” According to Barnett, being able to work with Ensemble members gives students an insight into their “musicianship and non-verbal communication” that help them “create a very cohesive sound and they gave us very helpful feedback on our orchestrations.”
Barnett was also quick to highlight the group’s accessibility to students, saying “My favorite part of their residency at Skidmore is actually getting to just hang out with them and get to know them, whether eating with them in the Dining Hall or hanging out with them downtown after their Friday concert.”
Additionally, the group visited classes to connect music to education at large. Not only did they visit the music department, like Professor Evan Mack’s Composition Class and Professor Anthony Holland’s Orchestration class, but they looked further in places where music is not as frequently engaged with. The Art Department’s color class and the Physics Department’s sound and music class both received opportunities to bridge music and their focus of study.
The concert featured works by Mozart, César Franck, and the world premiere of composer TJ Cole’s piece titled Silver, Blue, which was commissioned by Carnegie Hall. This composition, as stated in the performance’s program, “explores sound, time, patterns, and interactions among performers.”
Despite Skidmore College’s Music program not being a conservatory, Ensemble Connect is just one example of the incredible opportunities that exist for musicians and artists at this school. Both those in the Fellowship and the students receive a unique opportunity to find intersections between art and education, leaving a positive impact on the community.