Pair of CAG Winners Awarded Avery Fisher Grants

Two Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition winners have been awarded Avery Fisher career grants, a cash prize given to young artists on the verge of major careers. This year grants of $25,000 are presented to violinists Alexi Kenney, Tessa Lark, and Sean Lee, cellist Jay Campbell, and pianist George Li.

Previous CAG alumni to win the grant include pianist Michael Brown, harpist Bridget Kibbey, violinist Jennifer Koh, Itamar Zorman (violinist of the Lysander Piano Trio), clarinetist David Shifrin, and the Pacifica Quartet, among several others. Mr. Kenney won the CAG Victor Elmaleh competition in 2013 and Mr. Campbell won in 2012.

The winners perform Tuesday, March 22, at 6 p.m. at the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space at WQXR's studios in New York. The event will be streamed live and broadcast on the station, 105.9 FM, on April 30 at 9 p.m., with a replay on May 4 at 10 p.m. To date, 141 artists have been awarded an Avery Fisher career grant

Violinist Alexi Kenney commands attention with his distinctive poise, musical intellect, and thoughtful repertoire, attributes which contributed to his win at the 2013 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition at the age of nineteen. His numerous other awards include top prizes at the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition (2012), the Mondavi Center Competition (2010), and the 2013 Kronberg Academy master classes.

In the 2015-2016 season, Alexi Kenney has performed at the Marlboro Music Festival, played the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Santa Maria Philharmonic, the Barber Concerto with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, and joined the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players in New York City for a program of German romantic works. He performs with Orpheus, appears in solo recital at Boston's Jordan Hall with pianist Dina Vainshtein, and tours with the East Coast Chamber Orchestra, in addition to numerous other performances.

Mr. Kenney has been praised for his "beautiful, aching tone" by Strings magazine for a performance of the Sibelius Concerto with the China Philharmonic Orchestra in Beijing. He has given recitals at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Napa's Festival del Sole, and the Mondavi Center and has been featured on NPR's "From the Top." Recent chamber music performances include those at Carnegie Hall, as part of a week-long residency studying with the Taka?cs Quartet; the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and Jordan Hall in Boston; and a tour with Musicians from Ravinia's Steans Music Institute and Miriam Fried.

Mr. Kenney has collaborated with Pamela Frank, Miriam Fried, Gary Graffman, Wu Han, Frans Helmerson, Steven Isserlis, Kim Kashkashian, Gidon Kremer, Christian Tetzlaff, and members of the Borromeo, Cleveland, Guarneri, and Taka?cs Quartets at festivals including Caramoor's "Rising Stars," Music@Menlo and its Winter Residency, and Yellow Barn. While at the Ravinia Festival's Steans Institute, he was the youngest participant and a recipient of the

Gene Witz memorial fellowship.

Born in Palo Alto, California, Mr. Kenney attends the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where he studies with Donald Weilerstein and Miriam Fried on the Richard Elias Scholarship. Previous teachers include Wei He, Jenny Rudin, and Natasha Fong.

Praised by The New York Times for his "electrifying performances" which "conveyed every nuance," American cellist Jay Campbell is the First Prize Winner of the 2012 CAG Victor Elmaleh International Competition. This spellbinding artist combines eclectic musical interests and a diverse spectrum of repertoire, which has led to collaborations with musicians ranging from Elliott Carter and Pierre Boulez to David Lang and John Zorn to members of Radiohead and Einstu?rzende Neubauten.

Mr. Campbell's 2015-16 season has included a return to the Moab Music Festival, appearances at Chamber Music Northwest and the DITTO Festival in Korea as well as a solo recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Later this season, Jay Campbell will perform with pianist Conor Hanick in the Morrison Artists Series in San Francisco. Featured concerto performances also include the DuPage Symphony in IL featuring Chen-Yi's Ballad, Dance and Fantasy (originally written for Yo-Yo Ma) and the Denver Philharmonic (Elgar Concerto).

In February 2015, Jay was the featured artist on Hen to Pan, a critically acclaimed CD on the Tzadik label comprised of duos and trios by John Zorn, and two new CD's were released later in 2015 on the CAG and Tzadik labels.

Recent concerto highlights include his New York Philharmonic debut performing Tan Dun's "Silk Road Encounters" from Crouching Tiger Concerto on a Young People's Concert at Avery Fisher Hall, his Carnegie Hall debut with the New York Youth Symphony at Stern Auditorium, and Ligeti Cello Concerto with Juilliard's Axiom Ensemble at Alice Tulley Hall, as well as Lucerne Festival Academy, Alabama Symphony, Oakland East-Bay Symphony, The Juilliard Orchestra and the Aspen Festival Orchestra. Among the conductors with whom he has collaborated are Pierre Boulez, Matthias Pintscher, Michael Morgan, Jeffrey Milarsky, Joshua Weilerstein and Ryan McAdams. Recent recitals include Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, the Italian Academy at Columbia University, the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, and the Mondavi Center at UC Davis, all with pianist Conor Hanick.

Jay has premiered nearly one hundred works to date, including concerti by Chris Rogerson and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang. In 2013-14, Jay premiered a new piece written for him by John Zorn called occam's razor, and for the 2015-16 season, a new cello concerto titled Genus and Species is being written for Jay from American composer David Fulmer, a co-commissioned by the Human Rights Foundation. Jay has worked with leading new music groups including ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble), Ensemble InterContemporain, Da Capo Chamber Players, and the Argento Ensemble. A further testament to his dedication to the music of our time comes from the ASCAP Foundation which honored him with the Lieber & Stoller Award.

As a chamber musician, Jay has worked with members of the Arditti, Takacs, Kronos, and Afiara String Quartets. Festival appearances include Marlboro Music, Moab Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Rockport Chamber Music Festival, and Festival Heidelberger Fru?hling in Germany, and he has enjoyed residencies at Vermont's Yellow Barn Music Festival and at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Texas.

Born in Berkeley, CA, Jay Campbell studied at The Juilliard School where he received his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees while studying with celebrated cellist Fred Sherry. Jay is currently an Artist Diploma candidate at Juilliard School, continuing with Mr. Sherry.

Founded in 1951 with a mission to discover, nurture, and promote young musicians, Concert Artists Guild has helped several hundred young musicians start careers over the past sixty years. The range of artistry has been great: from the heart of the classical music tradition to the cutting edge. Notable alumni artists include violinist Jennifer Koh, clarinetists David Krakauer and David Shifrin, flutists Carol Wincenc and Marina Piccinini, Imani Winds, the Grammy-winning ensembles eighth blackbird, Pacifica and Parker String Quartets, and MacArthur Fellow flutist and arts entrepreneur Claire Chase.

CAG provides support to a roster of talented artists during the critical and formative time between completion of formal studies and the achievement of an established career. Artists are selected through a rigorous multi-round annual competition open to traditional and non-traditional instrumentalists, ensembles and singers. CAG offers comprehensive management services including concert bookings and tour management, commissioning and recording opportunities and marketing and publicity support.

The NewMusic/New Places initiative presents CAG artists in non-traditional venues such as bars, clubs, and galleries, introducing diverse audiences to concert music. Writing for The New York Times, music critic Zachary Woolfe captured the essence of CAG's desire to broaden the performance possibilities for its winners: "Concert Artists Guild, which manages and promotes rising classical performers, is well aware of the challenges its musicians face as they embark on their careers. Stable, dependable engagements may well be a thing of the past, and it is necessary to think beyond the same traditional halls. To that end, the organization started the series New Music/New Places which presents its young charges and alumni in a wider-than-usual range of places." (October 4, 2013)

The CAG Records label enables roster musicians to get their music onto disc and into the marketplace. The CAG Commissioning Program ensures that classical music continues to be a living art form by fostering collaborations between performers and composers.