Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a 16.3-acre (6.6-hectare) complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 million visitors annually. It houses internationally renowned performing arts organizations including the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Ballet, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and the Juilliard School.
Leila Bronia Josefowicz is an American-Canadian classical violinist.
Christopher Taylor is a prominent American pianist.
David Shifrin is an American classical clarinetist and artistic director.
Kirill Gerstein is a Russian-American concert pianist. He is the sixth recipient of the Gilmore Artist Award. Born in the former Soviet Union, Gerstein is an American citizen based in Berlin. Between 2007-2017, he led piano classes at the Stuttgart Musik Hochschule. In 2018, he took up the post of Professor of Piano at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule in Berlin in addition to the Kronberg Academy’s Sir András Schiff Performance Programme for Young Artists.
The Avery Fisher Prize is an award given to American musicians for outstanding achievement in classical music. Founded by philanthropist Avery Fisher in 1974, it is regarded as one of the most significant awards for American instrumentalists. The award is decided by members of the Avery Fisher Artist Program, which is administered by the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; artists do not apply, and nominations are secret. Initially accompanied by an award of US$10,000, recent years have seen the cash allotment increase to US$75,000 and then US$100,000.
Ani Kavafian is a classical violinist and professor at the Yale School of Music.
Anthony McGill is the principal clarinetist for the New York Philharmonic, after having served for a decade as principal clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.
The Calder Quartet (CQ) is a string quartet based in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1998 at the University of Southern California, the group takes its name from American sculptor Alexander Calder. The ensemble is currently composed of its founding members, including violinists Benjamin Jacobson and Tereza Stanislav, violist Jonathan Moerschel, and cellist Eric Byers. Los Angeles Times music critic, Mark Swed called the CQ "one of America's great string quartets." In 2014, the CQ was awarded one of Lincoln Center's prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grants for "professional assistance and recognition to talented instrumentalists who the Recommendation Board and Executive Committee believe have great potential."
The Escher String Quartet is an American string quartet based in New York City, where they serve as Artists of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Their name derives from the Dutch artist M. C. Escher.
Inon Barnatan is an American/Israeli classical pianist.
Heidi Lehwalder is an American classical harpist. She is internationally renowned as one of the world's greatest harp prodigies, and as the final student of master Carlos Salzedo. Leonard Bernstein said of her, "...The main thing to tell you about Heidi is that she is simply a genius," in his notes for the Young People's Concerts. She was the first recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize, later to be renamed the Avery Fisher Career Grant.
Peter Kolkay is an American bassoonist. In 2002, he was awarded First Prize at the Concert Artists Guild International Competition, and was the recipient of a 2004 Avery Fisher Career Grant.
The Poulenc Trio is an American chamber music ensemble and oboe-bassoon-piano trio, formed in 2003. The current members are pianist Irina Kaplan Lande, bassoonist Bryan Young and oboist Alexander Vvedenskiy. Former members have included New York Philharmonic principal oboist Liang Wang, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra oboist James Austin Smith and Vladimir Lande. Wang joined the group in 2015 after the departure of the founding oboist Vladimir Lande.
Demarre McGill is an American classical musician who is principal flutist of the Seattle Symphony. He is also one of the few African-American musicians who hold positions in professional orchestras.
Bella Hristova is a Bulgarian-American violinist.
Michael Stephen Brown is an American classical pianist and composer. He is the recipient of the 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant, 2018 Emerging Artist Award from Lincoln Center, and the 2010 Concert Artists Guild Competition. Brown has performed as soloist with the Seattle, Grand Rapids, North Carolina, Maryland and Albany symphony orchestras, and at Carnegie Hall, Caramoor, the Smithsonian, Alice Tully Hall, and the Gilmore Festival. He is an artist at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and is a former member of CMS Two. He regularly performs duo recitals with cellist Nicholas Canellakis. He has received commissions from many organizations and some of today’s leading artists, and recently toured his own Piano Concerto around the US and Poland with several orchestras.
Henry Kramer is an American pianist.
Kevin Zhu is an American concert violinist. He is a recipient of the 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant and was the first prize winner of the 55th edition of the International Paganini Competition in Genoa, Italy, aged just 17. He was also the first prize winner in the junior division of the 2012 Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists in Beijing, China. In 2019, he made his debut at Carnegie Hall at Weill Recital Hall.
Mia Chung is a concert pianist, educator and writer based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is also the Professor of Musical Studies and Performance at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Chung is the recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant and the winner of the Concert Artists Guild Award.
