Chamber Music America announces recipients of six new awards for 2024

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On Sunday 21 January, during its 2024 National Conference, Chamber Music America (CMA) announced the recipients of six new awards, celebrating extraordinary achievements of the small ensemble music community across disciplines. Recipients were nominated by CMA members and then voted on by independent panels from the field.

The Dalí Quartet was named Ensemble of the Year, celebrated for the impact its mix of Latin American, Classical and Romantic repertoire brings to the chamber music landscape. Comprising violinists Ari Isaacman-Beck and Carlos Rubio, violist Adriana Linares and cellist Jesús Morales, the quartet is based in Philadelphia, PA and serves as faculty at West Chester University Wells School of Music as the quartet in residence, as well as an Iris Collective resident ensemble. The Dalí Quartet’s previous accolades include the 2023 ACMP Foundation’s Susan McIntosh Lloyd Award for Excellence and Diversity in Chamber Music, 2021 recipient of Chamber Music America’s Guarneri String Quartet Residency, the 2021 Silver Medal at the inaugural Piazzolla Music Competition and Atlanta Symphony’s 2019 Aspire Award for accomplished African American and Latino musicians.

New Work of the Year went to Kyle Rivera’s Anaglyph, commissioned by the Cross-Country Chamber Consortium. Rivers in Our Veins, by Allison Miller, was named Interdisciplinary Collaboration of the Year, while the Catalyst Quartet’s album Uncovered, Vol. 3, featuring works by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, William Grant Still and George Walker, was named Album of the Year.

National Sawdust was named Community Impact/Presenter of the Year. Previously called the CMAcclaim Award, this award recognises an individual or organisation that has made a profound and lasting contribution to their community through the presentation of chamber music performances, educational outreach initiatives, collaborations with local musicians and organisations, or audience development programmes. The Sphinx Organization president and artistic director Afa Dworkin was named Arts Advocate of the Year.

These individuals and ensembles join the previously announced honorees the Balourdet Quartet (Cleveland Quartet Award) Herbie Hancock (Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award) and JACK Quartet (Michael Jaffee Visionary Award), who were named in November 2023. All nine were fêted during the CMA Awards Brunch.

’I am pleased to announce the additions to CMA’s Awards programme, which recognises phenomenal artists and organizations in our field,’ said CMA’s chief executive officer Kevin Kwan Loucks. ’There are so many individuals and organisations propelling our industry, and CMA has a unique platform to honour and celebrate their successes. As we work to expand our own reach through grant programmes and educational initiatives, we are proud to amplify the transformative achievements of our partners.’

Playing

In The Best of Technique you’ll discover the top playing tips of the world’s leading string players and teachers. It’s packed full of exercises for students, plus examples from the standard repertoire to show you how to integrate the technique into your playing.

Teaching

The Strad’s Masterclass series brings together the finest string players with some of the greatest string works ever written. Always one of our most popular sections, Masterclass has been an invaluable aid to aspiring soloists, chamber musicians and string teachers since the 1990s.

Calendars

American collector David L. Fulton amassed one of the 20th century’s finest collections of stringed instruments. This year’s calendar pays tribute to some of these priceless treasures, including Yehudi Menuhin’s celebrated ‘Lord Wilton’ Guarneri, the Carlo Bergonzi once played by Fritz Kreisler, and four instruments by Antonio Stradivari.