Sphinx Organization to Present National Convening 'SphinxConnect: Amplify' And 27th Annual Sphinx Competition

Sphinx Organization, the largest and longest-standing organization dedicated to diversity and inclusion in classical music, will present its annual convening, SphinxConnect: Amplify, and the 27th Annual Sphinx Competition in Detroit, MI, happening from January 24-27, 2024.

On Wednesday, January 24, 2024, the Sphinx Orchestral Partners Auditions (SOPA) Excerpt Competition take place. SOPA provides Black and Latinx orchestral musicians the unique opportunity to audition for a panel representing several orchestras seeking to identify musicians for invitation to auditions, pre-advancement at auditions and/or placement on substitute player lists. The panel will include excerpt competition judges who will select outstanding performances as winners of cash prizes ranging from $250 to $3,500.

From Thursday, January 25, 2024 through Saturday, January 27, 2024, Sphinx welcomes hundreds of musicians, industry leaders, educators, funders, diversity advocates, and administrators to Detroit's Marriott Renaissance Center for SphinxConnect: Amplify. The convening features 30 sessions and more than 100 speakers - comprised of the top luminaries among classical music's artistic administrators, composers, and performers - leaders of the United States' top conservatories, and many more. To prevent barriers to access, SphinxConnect: Amplify operates on a Choose What You Pay model, and most sessions will be live-streamed through a virtual platform to those who wish to attend virtually.

The Opening Plenary on Thursday evening will feature NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson in an interview hosted by Sphinx's Founder, poetjournalist and social entrepreneur Aaron Dworkin. The closing plenary will feature composer, pianist, educator Arturo O'Farrill interviewed by pianist and activist Lara Downes. Panels throughout the weekend cover topics such as Ceding Power From Every Seat | Dismantling Systemic Inequity in Classical Music, Going Global | Launching Your Intercontinental Career, Everyone is a Fundraiser | How to Ask for Money, Failing Forward | The Case for Radical Transparency, and Excellence as the Outcome of Diversity. Panelists include industry leaders such as Marcia Sells, Chief Diversity Officer and Assistant General Manager at The Metropolitan Opera; Simon Woods, President and CEO of the League of American Orchestras; Camille Delaney-McNeil, Director of the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles at the LA Phil; Lisa Richards Toney, President and CEO of APAP; composers and performers including Shawn E. Okpebholo, Daniel Bernard Roumain, Tamar-kali, Randall Goosby, Elena Urioste, Seth Parker Woods, and many more. The full conference schedule is available at www.SphinxConnect.org.

On January 27, 2024, at 7:30 pm ET in the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center, Sphinx hosts the final round of the Sphinx Competition, a national competition offering young Black and Latinx classical string players a chance to compete under the guidance of an internationally renowned panel of judges and to perform with and receive mentorship from established professional musicians. The 2024 competition will be judged by an illustrious panel to include Joseph Conyers, Principal Bass, Philadelphia Orchestra; violinist Randall Goosby; cellist Seth Parker Woods; Alasdair Tait, Chief Executive & Artistic Director of Young Classical Artists Trust; George Taylor, Professor of Viola at Eastman School of Music; violinist Elena Urioste; and John Zion, President & CEO of MKI Artists.

Finalists in both the Junior (Ages 17 and under) and Senior (Ages 18-30) divisions have the opportunity to perform with the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra (SSO), a unique all-Black and Latinx orchestra comprised of top professionals from around the country, and compete for a total of nearly $100,000 in prizes, including the top Robert Frederick Smith Prize. All semi-finalists and finalists have access to scholarships and fine instruments through the Sphinx Music Assistance Fund.

Detroit Public Television will televise the live concert and live streamed on the Sphinx Organization's website and Facebook. Former laureates of the Sphinx Competition include artists such as Joseph Conyers, Sterling Elliott, Randall Goosby, Tai Murray, and Elena Urioste, all of whom have gone on to major orchestral and solo careers.

The Sphinx Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is a unique all-Black and Latinx orchestra comprised of top professionals from around the country. The SSO includes past and current members of the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Met Opera Orchestra, Detroit, Atlanta, Baltimore, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Puerto Rico Symphonies, as well as faculty members of leading music institutions, including Peabody and New England Conservatories, Harlem School of the Arts, Rutgers University, and the University of Michigan.

SphinxConnect: Amplify Program Schedule
January 25-27, 2024
Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center | Detroit, MI
Learn More: www.SphinxConnect.org

Thursday, January 25, 2024

1:30pm - Young, Black, & Ready to Graduate
Brittney Bryanna Burgess - Program Coordinator for the Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, The Juilliard School
Torrance Buntyn Jr. - Percussionist/Timpanist, Educator, Southern Methodist University
Brianna Garcon - Program Coordinator, National Community Partnerships, The Kennedy Center
Alexis V. Prescott - Graduate Advisor, Black Students' Union, Eastman School of Music

5:00pm - Networking for Introverts
Eric Salazar - Clarinetist/Composer/Arts Administrator

7:30pm - Opening Plenary
Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson, Chair, National Endowment for the Arts
Aaron P. Dworkin, Poetjournalist/Founder/Professor of Arts Leadership & Entrepreneurship, Sphinx Organization/University of Michigan

Friday, January 26, 2024

9:00am - Ceding Power From Every Seat | Dismantling Systemic Inequity in Classical Music
Kerrien Suarez - President & CEO, Equity In The Center
Shea Scruggs - Chief Enrollment Officer, Curtis Institute of Music
Marcia Sells - Chief Diversity Officer & Assistant General Manager, Metropolitan Opera
Alexa Smith - Senior Director, Anti-Racism, Equity, Belonging, The Public Theater
Lecolion Washington- Executive Director, Community Music Center of Boston

9:40am - Music Opens Borders
Horacio Contreras - Cello Faculty, University of North Texas/Music Institute of Chicago
Maria Fernanda Castillo - Assistant Professor of Flute, University of Tennessee-Knoxville
Sarah Smith - Junior Strategist/SOLA Intern, dcm, Inc./Strings of Latin America

9:40am - Necessary Conversations | A Dress Rehearsal for Change
Esther Triggs - Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Interlochen Center for the Arts

10:20am - Activism in Philanthropy
Angelique Power - President & CEO, The Skillman Foundation
DeAnna Cummings - Program Director, McKnight Foundation
Koven J. Smith - Senior Director/Arts , John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Lane Harwell - Program Officer, Ford Foundation

11:00am - Calls & (New) Responses | Exploring empathy, understanding, and forgiveness as fuel for social change
Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) - Composer/Violinist/Educator, ASU/SOZO Artists
Anna Galura Summers - Artistic Administrator/Violinist, The Phoenix Symphony
Shawn E. Okpebholo -Composer
Tamar-kali - Vocalist, Composer & Performer

11:00am - PAC to the Future
Taneisha Nash Laird, President & CEO, Greater Roxbury Arts & Cultural Center
Jenny Bilfield - President & CEO, Washington Performing Arts
Devin Hinzo - Artistic Administrator, Cal Performances, UC Berkeley
Mark F. Wilson - Executive Director, Zoellner Arts Center

2:00pm - Going Global | Launching Your Intercontinental Career
Victoria Robey OBE, Board Member, Sphinx Organization
Lydia Connolly - Director, Head of Artist Management, Harrison Parrott
Randall Goosby - Violinist
Alasdair Tait - President, YCAT (Young Classical Artists Trust)
Elena Urioste - Violinist, Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective/Intermission

2:00pm - Amplifying Impact
DuMarkus Davis - Founder & CEO, Musicbuk
Aubrey Bergauer - CEO, Changing the Narrative
Drew Alexander Forde - Entrepreneur/Violist/Content Creator, Whole Soul Music LLC
Richard Lonsdorf - Executive Director, New Century Chamber Orchestra

2:40pm - The Post-Classical Musician | Exploring New Genres
Scott Tixier - Professor/Jazz Violinist/Composer, University of North Texas
Joy Guidry - Bassoonist/Composer/Performance Artist
Li(sa E.) Harris - Interdisciplinary Artist/Composer/Founder, Studio Enertia
Cleo Reed - Sound Designer/Composer/Performance Artist

3:20pm - Lifting Every Voice | Attracting, celebrating, and empowering future leaders at HBCUs
Dr. Demarr Woods - Chairperson of the Department of Music and Performing Arts, Hampton University
Dr. Lisa "Osunleti" Beckley-Roberts - Chair and Associate Professor, Jackson State University
Benjamin Grube - Director of Orchestras/Violinist, Texas Southern University
Byron G. Johnson - Director, Global Programs/Associate Professor of Music, Alcorn State University

3:20pm - Under 30 & Asking Questions
Ariel Shelton - Creative Consultant, Aery Consulting Services
Carlos García León - Individual Giving Manager, Chicago Shakespeare Theater
Jaime Sharp - Arts Leader/Cultural Innovator/Equity Strategist, Grantmakers in the Arts
Paula Wilson - Membership Engagement and Marketing Coordinator, Equity Arc

4:00pm - Everyone is a Fundraiser | How to Ask for Money
Antonio C. Cuyler - Professor & Principal Consultant, University of Michigan/Cuyler Consulting, LLC
Achia Floyd - Director of Foundation Relations and Community, Sphinx Organization
Arreon A. Harley-Emerson - President & CEO, Equity Sings
Mahmoud Said - Manager, Community Campaign & Engagement, ArtsWave
Andrea Thompson - Director of Development, Afro Latin Jazz Alliance

4:40pm - Black Music Seen LIVE
David A. Norville - Oboist & Media Producer, Black Orchestral Network
Dale Allmond Breidenthal - Violinist, LA Phil
Jennifer Arnold - Violist, Black Orchestral Network/Richmond Symphony/Cleveland Institute of Music
Joseph Conyers - Principal Bass, The Philadelphia Orchestra
Francisco Joubert Bernard - Bassoonist, Louisville Orchestra | University of Louisville5:20pm - Composing Inclusion
Vanessa Rose - Executive Director, American Composers Forum
Jordyn Davis - Composer, Bassist, Educator
Carolina Heredia - Director of Programs, American Composers Forum
Gary A. Padmore - Vice President, Education and Community Engagement, New York Philharmonic
Weston Sprott - Dean and Director of the Preparatory Division/Trombonist, The Juilliard School/Met Opera

5:20pm - Overture @ Connect
Gladys Gonzalez - Strings Educator, Hattiesburg Public Schools
Freddy Contreras - Associate Artistic Director, Trenton Music Makers/Capital Harmony Works
Maria Pia Bucco - Music Educator and Performer, Sphinx Organization
Michal Shein - Cellist/Teaching Artist, Cellisimo/NEC/Boston String Academy

Saturday, January 27, 2024

10:00am - From DHL to Green Card
Angelica "Angie" Durrell - Founder and CEO, INTEMPO
Andrea Restrepo - Orchestra Manager and Operations Assistant, Empire State Youth Orchestra
Brian Taylor - Goldstein, Arts & Entertainment Attorney, GG Arts Law
Roberto Arruda - Director of International Student Services, Berklee College of Music

10:00am - Shifting the Paradigm
Mark Williams - Chief Executive Officer, Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Charlotte Lee - President and Founder, Primo Artists
Christina Baker - Senior Director of Artist Management, Young Concert Artists
Thomas Mesa, Cellist 10:40am - Failing Forward | The Case for Radical Transparency
Lisa Richards Toney - President and CEO, Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP)
Anyania Muse - Managing Director IDEA & Operations, Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Edward Lewis - President & CEO, Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts
Terell Johnson - Executive Director, Chicago Philharmonic

11:20am - SOPA: More Than A Competition
Simon Woods - President and CEO, League of American Orchestras
Alan D. Valentine - President & CEO, The Nashville Symphony
Shantanique Moore - Flutist
Titus Underwood - Oboist, Nashville Symphony/Cincinnati Conservatory of Music

1:00pm - Radio Waves of Change | The Pivotal Role of Radio in Championing Artists of the Global Majority
LaRob K. Rafael - Producer/Host/Director, Hearing in Color/WFMT Chicago
James A. Muhammad - President, Classical California
Lydia Bangura - Soprano, University of Michigan
Cecelia Sharpe - Producer/Host, WRCJ

1:40pm - Expanding the Canon in Higher Education
Dr. Fredara Mareva Hadley - Ethnomusicologist, The Juilliard School
Dr. Charles Lwanga - Assistant Professor of Music (Ethnomusicology), University of Michigan
Dr. Liana Valente - Shared Voices Program Coordinator, The Denyce Graves Foundation
Dr. William Quillen - Dean of the Conservatory of Music/Professor of Musicology, Oberlin Conservatory

1:40pm - Where Do We Go From Here?
Brandon Neal - Producer, Creative Enterprise, Office of the President, The Juilliard School
Dr. Lori Hicks - Director of Opera, UNC Chapel Hill
Jennifer Bowman - Director of Community & Learning, Houston Grand Opera
Melanie Bacaling - Opera Director, The Metropolitan Opera2:20pm - PGM Leadership & How to Navigate White-Led Systems
Armando Castellano - Artistic Director/French Horn, Quinteto Latino

3:00pm - Excellence as the Outcome of Diversity
Tom Poster - Pianist, Founder, Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective
Berginald Rash - Clarinetist/Curator/Board of Directors, Chamber Music Scotland/Crash Ensemble
Seth Parker Woods - Cellist
Melissa Muñoz - Trumpeter/Program Manager/Educator, Kaufman Music Center

3:00pm - Nurturing Multiracial Identity
Scott Cecil - Director, Prohibited Media
André Solomon - Community Knowledge Manager/Flutist, Creative Generation
Anjali Lalani - Program Administrator, National Museum of African American History and Culture
Nexus - DEI Specialist, Dear Nexus4:20pm -Closing Plenary
Arturo O'Farrill - Composer/Pianist/Educator, Afro Latin Jazz Alliance/UCLA
Lara Downes - Pianist, Rising Sun Music

27th Annual Sphinx Competition Information
Junior Honors Concert:
Friday, January 26 at 12:00pm ET (In Person and Livestream)
Max M. and Marjorie S Fisher Music Center | Detroit, MI
Information: www.sphinxmusic.org/sphinx-competition
Tickets: www.dso.org/events-and-tickets/events/23-24-winter/sphinx-competition-2024-finals-concert

Sphinx Symphony Orchestra
Joseph Young, conductor

JUNIOR DIVISION PRIZES (Ages 17 and under)
1st Place - $10,000, solo appearances with major orchestras, and nationally-broadcast radio appearance on From the Top
2nd Place - $5,000
3rd Place - $3,000

Senior Division Finals Concert:
Saturday, January 27, 2024 at 7:30pm ET (In Person and Livestream)
Max M. and Marjorie S Fisher Music Center | Detroit, MI
Information: www.sphinxmusic.org/sphinx-competition
Tickets: www.dso.org/events-and-tickets/events/23-24-winter/sphinx-competition-2024-finals-concert

Sphinx Symphony Orchestra
Joseph Young, conductor

SENIOR DIVISION PRIZES (Ages 18 - 30)
1st Place - $50,000 Robert Frederick Smith Prize and solo appearances with major orchestras
2nd Place - $20,000
3rd Place - $10,000
Audience Choice - $5,000

2024 Sphinx Competition Jury Panel:
Joseph Conyers - Principal Bass, Philadelphia Orchestra
Randall Goosby - Violinist
Seth Parker Woods - Cellist
Alasdair Tait - Chief Executive & Artistic Director, Young Classical Artists Trust
George Taylor - Professor of Viola, Eastman School of Music
Elena Urioste - Violinist
John Zion - President & CEO, MKI Artists

About Sphinx Organization

The Sphinx Organization is a social justice organization dedicated to transforming lives through the power of diversity in the arts. Sphinx's four program areas - Education & Access, Artist Development, Performing Artists, and Arts Leadership - form a pipeline that develops and supports diversity and inclusion in classical music at every level: music education, artists performing on stage, the repertoire and programming being performed, the communities represented in audiences, and the artistic and administrative leadership within the field. Sphinx programs reach more than 100,000 students and artists, as well as live and broadcast audiences of more than two million annually, with an overall digital reach of 60 million. The organization has invested more than $11M in the careers of Black and Latinx artists through its work with 375 partners worldwide. Read more about Sphinx's programs at www.sphinxmusic.org.

View the "Sphinx Organization: A 25-year Journey" timeline here.

Photo Credit: Craig Gorkiewicz

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