Decoda captures a range of musical style, and reimagines the role of the musician as they travel to prisons and schools.

Founded in 2012, Decoda is more than a string quartet. It’s a chamber music collective 28 players strong. They also are the first-ever affiliate ensemble of legendary Carnegie Hall.

Ensemble Connect’s mission is training postgrad musicians to be not only artists but also citizens making a difference in their communities.

“They do that through concerts at Carnegie Hall,” says violinist Owen Dalby, one of about a dozen co-founders. “And they also put each player into a public school as an artist-resident.”

Dalby’s wife, Meena Bhasin, is also Decoda’s violist. “What’s great about all of this was creating a playground for musicians who were interested in doing more than reading notes on a page,” Bhasin says. “We got the right people, and what emerged was a shared ethos of what we want to do as people in the world using the music as a tool.”

They now perform regularly in prisons, shelters, schools and hospitals.

“We’re about helping people understand what we do by making a real connection,” Bhasin says. “We go to places where this music is rarely heard. This wasn’t an add-on, it was an holistic approach from the beginning about what it means to be a different kind of musician.”

The group comes together in a variety of configurations throughout the year, and its hallmark is expressive, often fiery musicianship. A video of Decoda executing the Schumann Piano Trio in D minor reveals violinist Anna Elashvili leaping out of her seat with exuberance, her cat-like movements offering an emotive physicality.

Joining Dalby, Bhasin and Elashvili in Carmel this weekend are cellist Saeunn Thorsteinsdottir and clarinetist Carol McGonnell. They’ve curated an exciting program of one contemporary and two traditional compositions beginning with Schubert’s Quartettsatz quartet. They’ll also play Johannes Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet in B minor, which Dalby calls “one of the most wonderfully satisfying pieces in the entire repertoire.”

The contemporary work is Gumboots by David Bruce, which uses rhythmic ostinatos and string drones as its organizing principles instead of atonality. The title refers to a style of South African dance not unlike the gyrations of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, who surfaced with Paul Simon on his 1986 album Graceland.

Musicologist Kai Christiansen lectures 45 minutes before curtain, and Decoda offers a master class at York School Saturday morning at 11am.

DECODA 8pm Saturday, Feb. 24. Sunset Center, Dolores between Eighth and Ninth, Carmel. $15-$64. 625-2212, chambermusicmontereybay.org