Alumni News: December 2023
Multiple Alumni Among 2024 Classical GRAMMY Nominees
Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance: American Stories
Anthony McGill & Pacifica Quartet
Festival Alumni: Simin Ganatra ’89, ’90, ’91 and Brandon Vamos ’89, ’90, ’91 of the Pacifica Quartet (check out this article in The Strad about Simin and Brandon, and how they met as students at the Festival).
Best Choral Performance: The House Of Belonging
Craig Hella Johnson, conductor (Miró Quartet; Conspirare)
Festival Alumni: Daniel Ching ’91 and William Fedkenheuer ’91 of the Miró Quartet and Sandy Yamamoto ’86, ’87, ’91, ’97.
Best Classical Compendium: Fandango
Anne Akiko Meyers; Gustavo Dudamel, conductor; Dmitriy Lipay, producer
Festival Alum: Anne Akiko Meyers ’83
Balourdet Quartet ’22 Wins Cleveland Quartet Award
Chamber Music America announced that the Balourdet Quartet will receive the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award for the 2024–25 and 2025–26 seasons. The award is named for one of history’s most illustrious string quartets and honors and promotes a rising string quartet whose artistry demonstrates significant promise in the field. Our congratulations to Angela, Justin, Ben, and Russell! The Balourdets were the 2022 Fellowship String Quartet.
Maestro Soundtrack Features Four Recent Alumni
You can hear The Orchestra Now (TŌN) performing Beethoven’s 8th Symphony in the new Netflix film Maestro, starring Bradley Cooper as the renowned composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. The script included a 1989 Tanglewood performance by Bernstein with a youth orchestra, and the musicians of TŌN were selected. The orchestra includes oboist Shawn Hutchinson ’18, ’19; violinist Jonathan Fenwick ’17, ’18, ’21; cellist Jordan Gunn ’16; and bassist Bennett Norris ’21. Check out the soundtrack here. The movie comes to Netflix on December 20.
Sphinx Organization Announces Semi-Finalists
Sphinx Organization has announced the semi-finalists of the 27th Annual Sphinx Competition, which includes five Festival alumni! Congratulations to violinist Anthony Dorsey ’21, ’22, ’23; violist Quincy Eby ’22; and cellist Catalina Wooldridge ’23 in the junior division, and violinist Julimar Gonzalez ’18, ’21, ’23 and cellist Andres Sanchez ’21 in the senior division. The concert will take place on Saturday, January 27 and will be livestreamed. Mark your calendars!
Are you a Festival alum with a career development, competition win, or other exciting news? Please share with us here.