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SARATOGA SPRINGS — “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” goes the old joke which first appeared in print during the 1950s. It offers up the punch line: “Practice, practice, practice.”
Conversely, how do you get from Carnegie Hall to Saratoga Springs? Head northwest on W. 57th St. toward 7th Ave. using the Hudson River as your guide on the 183-or-so-mile journey.
This week, the Wesley Community welcomed Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect to its campus for an afternoon program of classical music at Wesley’s Woodlawn Commons.
The performance was staged in recognition of the intergenerational connection of classical music between the young musicians and the senior residents to showcase how intergenerational connections allow youth and seniors to share experiences through mutually beneficial activities.
“We’re always thrilled to bring cultural events to our residents,” said Wesley Community CEO J. Brian Nealon, as the five-piece ensemble glided their bows across their respective string instruments or performed with hands across the piano keys of the room’s baby grand.
The musicians are based out of Carnegie Hall and are part of a fellowship program in partnership with Julliard School, The Weill Music Institute, the New York City Department of Education. They are currently engaged in a five-day residency at Skidmore College. It is a local residency first established in the fall of 2007.
“We had the opportunity through a board member who works at Skidmore to make this connection for us,” Nealon said. “Our residents love these types of programs and over the years we have been able to avail ourselves of Skidmore’s friendship and help to provide those types of services.”
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, according to the Carnegie Hall guidebook.
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, as well as presenting dozens of interactive performances in schools. Ensemble Connect alums have gone on to perform, teach, and engage with communities in 53 countries around the world.
While on campus at Skidmore, the fellows offer master classes, lessons, and class demonstrations, as well as play side by side with students of the Skidmore College Orchestra, read student compositions, and stage a live performance. Their concert programs include world premieres commissioned by Carnegie Hall. They perform Friday, Oct. 27 at Zankel Music Center.
“It works both ways. Our residents also go over to Skidmore and avail themselves of the programming that Skidmore has,“ Nealon said Wednesday afternoon, as the ensemble performed 18th century works of Austrian composer Franz Schubert and Italian composer Gioachino Rossini, and George Gershwin’s 20th century jazz standard “Embraceable You,” as a group of about 40 Wesley Community residents looked on.
The Wesley Community is a 37-acre, not-for-profit agency which serves the needs of the elderly, as well as active seniors, adults and pediatrics. Eleven buildings dot the campus that more than 600 residents call home; about 125 independent living and assisted living residents are at Woodlawn Commons - where this week’s performance was held – another 225 are at Embury Apartments and approximately 250 at Wesley Health Care Center – the campus the nursing home.
