Decoda, the Affiliate Ensemble of Carnegie Hall, is an artist-led collective of virtuoso chamber musicians and passionate advocates for music in communities around the world. Praised by the New York Times as “refreshing in the extreme” and by luminary Eric Booth as “the ninja musical artists the 21st century requires”, the NYC-based chamber music collective presents a program called Belonging at Southern Exposure on January 19th, 2024. Seamlessly flowing in time and space, musical selections explore connection, closeness, and the sense of belonging granted through the act of making and sharing art.

Belonging draws roots from medieval monophony of Hildegard von Bingen, explores the warmth of a mother and the whimsy of a child from works by Sarah Kirkland Snider and Chick Corea, to the discovery and meditation of the natural world by Decoda’s own Evan Premo and Brad Balliett.

The program shines a spotlight on Decoda’s celebrated creative community program, Music for Transformation, which serves incarcerated people around the United States. Decoda will perform three original works by incarcerated musicians, including one from a South Carolina prison, Lee Correctional Institution, where Decoda has been in residence since 2014.