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or many years – centuries, in fact – the exchange between musician, producing organization (or patron), and listener was almost always more or less the same: The musicians played, the audience heard. As for music education, that was the job of the schools and the parents, and by and large – at least for those of a certain class – they did it. Today that dynamic has changed. It’s more open, in the sense that orchestras and presenting houses have long since internalized that their jobs don’t have to begin and end with what happens on stage (though of course that remains at the center of what they do). It’s more urgent, in that there is a sense of the falling-off of music education in schools. And it’s more inspired, as the power of music to change lives and bring people together in our communities has become evident. But where do you start with so many roads to travel? It can be dizzying. But those who As part of Weill Music Institute’s Musical Connections programming, Slavic work at Carnegie Hall begin at Soul Party! brought musicians and people in the justice system together at another place. They begin with Queensboro Correctional Facility on Nov. 16, 2012. the vision, a vision that says if you can design programs whether they connect through and initiatives around music that can empower people themvarious digital channels or are selves to explore and create wherever they are – far though that some of the half-million people may be from New York – then those people will feel the music. who will be reached by the In their homes. In schools. Even in prisons. Anybody, anywhere, Hall’s Weill Music Institute this can connect with the values Carnegie Hall holds dear through the season alone, this is a journey music. And so in a sense, the logistical questions of “How do we forever headed into the future. physically get there to reach those people?” becomes less chalIt is a journey that Carnegie Hall lenging. Partnerships, programs, and guiding principles provide and its fellow adventurers map the structures, while music itself and people’s instinctive reacalong the way to awaken the tions to it can be trusted to do the rest. Beyond the four walls of Carnegie Hall lie pathways – two distinct creativity in those who take part and to inspire the rest of us. pathways formed of people connecting and being inspired. And