COMPETITIONS

1 Sterling Elliott

BAK PHOTO DARIO ACOSTA. HALL-TOMPKINS PHOTO CHRIS LEE

2 Jordan Bak

3 Kelly Hall-Tompkins

1 Cellists Sterling Elliott and Oliver Herbert, and violinists Geneva Lewis and Kevin Zhu have all been awarded Avery Fisher Career Grants for 2021. Worth $25,000 each, the grants are given to young artists who are US citizens or permanent residents, and who show ‘great potential for major careers’.Elliott, 21, is a student of Joel Krosnick at the Juilliard School, while Herbert, 23, studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with Carter Brey and Peter Wiley. Lewis, 22, is studying with Miriam Fried at the New England Conservatory, and Zhu, 20, is a student of Itzhak Perlman and Li Lin at Juilliard.

2 In response to the challenges created by the Covid-19 pandemic, US radio station WQXR has awarded six grants of $15,000. The string-playing recipients of the WQXR Artist Propulsion Lab funding are: violist Jordan Bak, who studied at the Juilliard School and New England Conservatory with Hsin-Yun Huang, Dimitri Murrath and Samuel Rhodes; violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins, a former student of Charles Castleman at the Eastman School of Music and Glenn Dicterow at the Manhattan School of Music; and the Junction Trio, comprising violinist Stefan Jackiw, cellist Jay Campbell and pianist Conrad Tao.

3 The online ‘Coffee Mask’ International Music Video Competition for flute and violin duo, organised by the Kasseler Kulturforum, based in Kassel, Germany, awarded its €2,000 first prize to Czech violinist Marie Hasoňová, a student of Johannes Meissl, Vida Vujic and Avedis Kouyoumdjian at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, and Romanian flautist Raluca Tihon. Japanese violinist Karin Nakayama and German flautist Pia Marei Hauser won second prize, worth €1,500, while third prize, worth €1,000, went to German violinist Susanna Fini and French–Swedish flautist Svea Guémy.

FORTHCOMING COMPETITIONS & AWARDS

International Joseph Mayseder Violin Competition in Linz, Austria, for violinists born between 1992 and 2005. First prize €8,000 Deadline 3 May; competition 8–14 August Web maysedercompetition.com

International Violin Competition Premio Paganini in Genoa, Italy, for violinists aged 15–30. First prize €30,000 Deadline 31 May; competition 15–24 October Web premiopaganini.it

Princess Astrid International Music Competition in Trondheim, Norway, for violinists aged under 31. First prize NOK160,000 (£13,500) Deadline 1 June; competition 15–18 November

Web tso.no/competition

APPOINTMENTS

• Krysia Osostowicz has been named first violinist of the Brodsky Quartet, succeeding Gina McCormack.

• The National Taipei University of Education has appointed violinist Richard Lin to its faculty.

• Violinist Stefan Jackiw has joined the strings faculty of the Mannes School of Music, NY, US.

• Stephen King is stepping down as the Australian String Quartet’s violist in May, having been appointed its director of engagement and learning. His successor has not been named.

For current vacancies, see our online jobs page at www.thestrad.com/jobs