US flute player wins $100,000
mainThe innovative Claire Chase, recipient of the 2012 Macarthur grant (worth $625,000 over five years), has just been named winner of the annual $100,000 Avery Fisher award.
Chase, 38 and Brooklyn-based, has a 22-year scheme to commission new music for her instrument.
She is the first flute player to win the award, which has been running since 1975 and has been withheld in five of the past eight years.
Yet another prize.
QUESTION: Below is the list of all past winners of this prize, if NONE of the people on this list had won, would it have made a JOT of difference either in classical music or in these recipients’ careers?
Lynn Harrell, cellist
Murray Perahia, pianist
Yo-Yo Ma, cellist
Emanuel Ax, pianist
Richard Goode, pianist
Horacio Gutiérrez, pianist
Elmar Oliveira, violinist
Richard Stoltzman, clarinetist
André Watts, pianist
Yefim Bronfman, pianist
Garrick Ohlsson, pianist
Sarah Chang, violinist
Pamela Frank, violinist
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violinist
Edgar Meyer, double bassist
David Shifrin, clarinetist
Midori, violinist
Emerson String Quartet
Eugene Drucker, violinist
Philip Setzer, violinist
Lawrence Dutton, violist
David Finckel, cellist
Joshua Bell, violinist
Gil Shaham, violinist
Kronos Quartet
David Harrington, violinist
John Sherba, violinist
Hank Dutt, violist
Jeffrey Zeigler, cellist
Jeremy Denk, pianist
ANSWER: No.
CONCLUSION: Mr. Avery Fisher lost his hall (thanks to his heirs) but at least he still has his prize.
It does seem to always go to people whose careers are already coming along quite nicely. Maybe the goal of the award is not to discover new talent, but to give the recipient enough money to take some of the pressure off for awhile — maybe free up time for new projects that would take a lot of time but maybe not make money; that kind of thing. Just a guess.
Can you clarify the point of your comment? I see none.
Add the Escher Quartet to the list of prizewinners, getting theirs in 2013. They are as good as it gets.