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Ensemble Connect returns to ۴ý for its 2025–26 residency program

October 10, 2025

Ensemble Connect — a group of extraordinary young professional classical musicians from Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute — returns to ۴ý for its fall residency, part of a biannual program now in its 19th year. 
 
The public is invited to attend a culminating concert on Friday, Oct. 24, featuring Arvo Pärt’s “Da pacem Domine” and “Quintettino,” Janáček’s “Mládí,” and Shostakovich’s “Piano Quintet, Opus 57” — a journey through some of the most compelling voices of chamber music.

The Ensemble Connect performance will take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24 in the Arthur Zankel Music Center. This event is free and open to the public; tickets are required. For more information, visit the Arthur Zankel Music Center website.  

The fall residency will take place Oct. 21–25. While in residence, fellows will engage with ۴ý students and the Saratoga Springs community through master classes, private lessons, class visits, and interactive performances. 
 
Ensemble Connect will return to campus for a second residency Feb. 10–14, 2026, including a public performance on Friday, Feb. 13. That program will feature the world premiere of a newly commissioned work by George Lewis, presented alongside Valerie Coleman’s “Portraits of Langston,” Barber’s “Adagio for Strings,” selected Scott Joplin rags arranged for string quartet, and Ives’s “String Quartet No. 1, ‘From the Salvation Army.’” 

۴ý Ensemble Connect

Ensemble Connect is a two-year fellowship program that prepares extraordinary young professional classical musicians for careers that combine musical excellence with teaching, community engagement, advocacy, entrepreneurship, and leadership. The fellowship includes a series of concerts where the musicians explore classical music in all its iterations, performing the timeless alongside new works. Since the inception of this residency in 2007, Ensemble Connect musicians have engaged with over 53,000 students and audience members through ۴ý class visits, lessons and coaching, local school and community outreach, and premiere performances. 
 
The October residency is made possible by the generous support of Beverly Sanders Payne ’59 and her late husband, David B. Payne. The February residency is supported by the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation. 
  
Programming is presented by ۴ý’s Department of Music and Office of Special Programs.  

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