Avery Fisher Career Grants Announces 2023 Winners

Received by up to five instrumentalists or chamber ensembles annually, the award also includes a cash prize of $25,000 each

The Avery Fisher Artist Program was created by the late Avery Fisher as a gift to Lincoln Center in 1974. The program’s Avery Fisher Career Grants support exceptional instrumentalists and chamber groups who are citizens or permanent residents of the U.S.

This year’s five recipients are double bassist Nina Bernat, guitarist Bokyung Byun, flutist Emi Ferguson, pianist Evren Ozel, and VC Artist Isidore String Quartet — comprising violinists Adrian Steele and Phoenix Avalon, violist Devin Moore, and cellist Joshua McClendon.

Alongside professional guidance, the winners will also receive $25,000 to support their career advancement, plus a custom-designed rosette as a token and symbol of the Grant. They will be presented with their awards at the Career Grant ceremony at WQXR’s Jerome L. Greene Performance Space.

Additional benefits include a professional recording made of the performances by each of the recipients at the ceremony, which will be available for their unrestricted use. The performances will be webcast live by WQXR and broadcast on April 11, 2023, at 9 PM and April 15, 2023, at 7 PM on 105.9 FM. 

The recipients will be celebrated tonight March 28 at 6 PM (ET) at a special ceremony at WQXR's Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, in New York City – which will be streamed LIVE here on The Violin Channel.

Including this year’s awards, a total of 171 Career Grants have been awarded since 1976. The recipients are nominated by the Program’s Recommendation Board of nationally recognized instrumentalists, conductors, composers, music educators, managers, and presenters.

The final winners are selected by the Program’s Executive Committee, which currently comprises Emanuel Ax, Deborah Borda, Mary Lou Falcone, David Finckel, Wu Han, Henry Fogel, Anthony Fogg, Pamela Frank, Jeremy Geffen, Ara Guzelimian, Yo-Yo Ma, Anthony McGill, Chad Smith, Matías Tarnopolsky, Shanta Thake, and Henry Timms. Advisors to the committee include Charles Avery Fisher, Nancy Fisher, and Philip Avery Kirschner.

Former recipients of the Avery Fisher Career Grant include Yuja Wang, Gil Shaham, Hilary Hahn, the JACK Quartet, and VC Artist Augustin Hadelich.