Decoda is an artist-led collective seeking to create a more compassionate and connected world through music. By thoughtfully curating outstanding performances of live chamber music and facilitating creative community projects, Decoda strives to inspire the next generation of musical artists to rethink and reimagine their role in society.
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,” Decoda’s versatile musicians are equally committed to virtuosic performance and audience engagement. Its flexible instrumentation, from duos to large mixed ensembles, allows for unique, inspiring and engaging concert experiences for a vast array of audiences, from concert halls to schools, hospitals, shelters, and correctional facilities. The only affiliate ensemble of Carnegie Hall, Decoda seeks to engage, inspire, and create a more compassionate and connected world through music.
Decoda’s work is anchored by creative programming and performance of mixed ensemble chamber music repertoire. DECODA, the ensemble’s debut album, was released on the Bright Shiny Things label in spring of 2024 and features a panoply of musical perspectives – including a world premiere recording of “Revelry” by Valerie Coleman which has received a 2025 GRAMMY nomination for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.
Past engagements have included performances, creative community projects, and artist training residencies at Southbank Centre and the Barbican (London), the Guildhall School of Music & Drama (London), Royal College of Music (Stockholm) Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Germany), Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Festival (UAE), Mainly Mozart Festival (San Diego), Við Djúpið Festival (Iceland), Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Caramoor Music Festival, National Center for the Performing Arts (Mumbai), Decoda Institute (South Africa), Suntory Hall (Japan), Programa de Educación Musical Fomento Cultural Banamex & Carnegie Hall (Mexico), Curtis Institute of Music, Yale School of Music, Peabody Institute of Music, the Juilliard School, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Decoda’s creative community projects are a vital component of its artistic vision, and have been recognized by CNN, CBS News, Huffington Post, the Washington Post, and the White House, featuring Decoda’s 10-year collaboration at Lee Correctional Institution, South Carolina’s largest maximum-security prison. At home in New York City, Decoda has partnered with Mount Sinai Hospital, WQXR, the Police Athletic League, Beth Abraham Hospital, and the Administration for Children’s Services to make music with, and for, a diverse cross-section of the city. Decoda’s songwriting workshops in correctional facilities empower vulnerable and disenfranchised voices of incarcerated individuals at facilities around the country. An album featuring music by Xiao Bao He, a composer incarcerated at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in New York, is planned for the 2024-25 season.
Decoda was founded in 2012 by musicians who first collaborated as members of Ensemble Connect, a two-year fellowship program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the NYC Department of Education. Its work as an ensemble has grown out of this collective training, which is focussed on developing skills as exemplary performers, dedicated teachers, and passionate advocates for music in communities around the world. Learn more at: www.decodamusic.org.
Three-time GRAMMY-nominated artist Clara Lyon is an accomplished soloist, chamber musician, improviser, and curator whose work connects sonic languages and artistic disciplines to create new pathways for imagination. Known for stylistic versatility, she is a sought-after collaborator in numerous contexts, from performances with groups like the Lydian Quartet and A Far Cry, to being a featured improvising soloist with San Francisco Symphony Musicians on their SoundBox series.
Lyon is currently the Co-Artistic Director of Decoda, Carnegie Hall’s only Affiliate Ensemble, and is on faculty at the Greenwood Music Festival. She frequently performs and creates with duo partner Hannah Collins, and their current projects include collaborations with composers Evan Premo, Mazz Swift, Yaz Lancaster, Maria Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir, visual artist Antonia Contro, and video artist Nicholas Zoulek. A recipient of the Music Academy of the West Alumni Enterprise Award, and a prizewinner of the Irving M. Klein International Competition and the Schadt International Competition, Lyon has performed in solo and chamber music performances around the world in venues such as Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress, Reykjavik Arts Festival, NPR’s Tiny Desk, the American Academy in Rome, Miller Theater, the Banff Centre, and many more, and holds degrees from The Juilliard School and SUNY Stony Brook.
From 2014-2023 she was a violinist and Director of Programs for the Chicago-based Spektral Quartet, during which time they commissioned and performed over 50 new works for string quartet with composers such as Anthony Cheung, Sam Pluta, Sky Macklay, Tonia Ko, George Lewis, Augusta Read Thomas, Hans Thomalla, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Bernard Rands, and many others, were nominated for three GRAMMY awards in three different genres, and were in residence at the University of Chicago’s Music Department. As Director of Programs, Lyon cultivated collaborative partnerships between celebrated composers, visual artists, writers, and community organizations to create thoughtful and immersive musical experiences across a variety of formats. She also spearheaded the quartet’s lauded cycle of Arnold Schoenberg’s complete string quartets.
Lyon’s interest in interdisciplinary collaboration has forged ongoing connections and projects. Her sonic and visual installation with musician Hannah Collins and visual artist Antonia Contro was shown as part of the Only Connect exhibit at the Secrist gallery in Chicago. She is also the only performing member of the Theorem Collective, a small company of artists dedicated to adapting the celebrated fine art book Theorem by Antonia Contro and Elizabeth Bradfield, to the stage in 2024. Thus, the Night, a short art film (approx. 19 min.) inspired by French composer Henri Dutilleux's seminal work for string quartet Ainsi la Nuit, was developed by Lyon with Antonia Contro and film production company Four/Ten Media, produced by and featured Spektral Quartet, and has been selected for the Montreal Independent Film Festival, Brussels Capital Film Festival, Rome Music Video Awards, and more. Thus, the Night will premiere in a special presentation at Aspen Film in March of 2024.
George Meyer is equally interested in "classical" music, in fiddle music, and in what they have in common; these interests inform his composing. His pieces for classical string-playing friends make use of lessons learned from the fiddle side, and vice versa.
He has been commissioned by Chamber Music Northwest, Bravo! Vail, Astral Artists and Katie Hyun, Mike Marshall and Caterina Lichtenberg, the Versoi Ensemble, Midsummer's Music, and the Tribeca New Music Festival. He has performed his own compositions at the 92nd Street Y, Stanford Live in Bing Concert Hall, the Phillips Center at University of Florida, the Newman Center at University of Denver, the Gogue Center at Auburn University, Ingram Hall at Vanderbilt University, the Peace Center in Greenville, SC, and Troy Savings Bank Music Hall in Troy, NY, among many others. Festival appearances performing his own compositions include the Aspen Music Festival, Bravo! Vail, Chamber Music Northwest, the Rome Chamber Music Festival, and the Telluride and RockyGrass Bluegrass Festivals.
He recently announced a new violin-piano duo project, Upstream, with composer-pianist Will Healy; they co-compose their repertoire.
Claire Bryant is a cellist, teacher and activist, whose passion and commitment shine brightly through all of her work.
A sought-after and distinctive performer, Claire has collaborated with such master artists as Emanuel Ax, Sir Simon Rattle and Dawn Upshaw, and worked closely with luminary composers from Meredith Monk to Steve Reich to Herbie Hancock. Over the past 25 years, she has enjoyed a prominent solo career, appearing with major orchestras around the world including the Spartanburg Symphony Orchestra, Finland’s Kuopio Symphony Orchestra and The National Symphony of Honduras.
Claire is a co-founder and co-Artistic Director of Decoda, Carnegie Hall’s Affiliate Ensemble, and director of its initiative Music for Transformation, a criminal justice program which brings collaborative songwriting workshops to incarcerated communities. In this capacity, she was invited twice to share Decoda’s work with the Obama administration in the White House.
In 2019, Claire returned to her native South Carolina to join the University of South Carolina School of Music’s faculty, where she enjoys a robust studio of talented young cellists. She is the Coordinator of Community Engagement at the School of Music, and is the director of The Collective, a graduate ensemble dedicated to creative and innovative community performances and programming.
Claire attended the University of South Carolina, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and The Juilliard School, where her primary teachers were Robert Jesselson, Joel Krosnick, and Bonnie Hampton.