Njioma Chinyere Grevious will obtain the $50,000 USD Robert Frederick Smith Prize and plenty of solo appearances with main orchestras
Organized by the Sphinx Group, the nationwide Sphinx Competitors is an annual occasion that gives younger Black and Latinx classical string gamers the chance to carry out earlier than an internationally famend jury and be mentored by prime trade professionals.
Because the 2023 first prize winner, violinist Njioma Chinyere Grevious will obtain the $50,000 USD Robert Frederick Smith Prize and plenty of solo appearances with main orchestras. Njioma was additionally awarded the $5,000 Viewers Alternative Prize.
Second place and $20,000 was given to violinist Alexandra Switala whereas third Place and $10,000 went to violist Dillon Scott.
You’ll be able to watch their performances at this 12 months’s Senior Division Finals, right here!
In tonight’s closing, Alexandra and Njioma performed the primary motion of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Concerto for Violin in G Minor, Op. 80 whereas Dillon carried out the fourth motion of Roberto Sierra’s Concerto for Viola.
The three finalists carried out with conductor Kalena Bovell and the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra, the all-Black and Latinx orchestra comprised of prime professionals from across the nation.
The 2023 jury comprised Joseph Conyers, Zuill Bailey, Juan-Miguel Hernandez, Patrice Jackson, Jennifer Koh, Michael Kondziolka, and Erik Ronmark.
A graduate of The Juilliard Faculty, the place she was awarded the John Erskine Prize, Njioma Chinyere Grevious obtained the Music Academy of the West Keston-Max Fellowship to check and carry out with the London Symphony Orchestra in 2022.
As a member of the Abeo Quartet, Njioma received prime prizes on the Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competitors, Chesapeake Worldwide Chamber Music Competitors, and Fischoff Chamber Music Competitors. Finalists within the 2021 Younger Live performance Artists competitors, the quartet is at the moment the inaugural Graduate String Quartet in Residence on the College of Delaware beneath the mentorship of the Calidore Quartet.
Njioma’s principal academics have included Ronald Copes, James Buswell, Mariana Inexperienced-Hill, and Farhoud Moshfegh. She has participated in festivals together with [email protected], Perlman Chamber Music Workshop, Juilliard String Quartet Seminar, Norfolk Chamber Music Competition, Music Academy of the West, Montreal Worldwide String Quartet Academy, Meadowmount, Fontainebleau Colleges, and Boston College Tanglewood Institute.
Within the Junior Division of this 12 months’s competitors, 17-year-old cellist Brandon Leonard obtained first prize, which incorporates $10,000 USD, plenty of solo appearances with main orchestras, and a nationally-broadcast radio look on From the Prime.