Student Awards and Accomplishments

Competition Winners

(click on student names to read their bios and meet their studios)

On March 17th UNCSA students swept the high school and college/graduate categories of the MANC String Competition. In the high school division, first prize went to violinist Emily Lin (HS ’18), second prize to violinist Hannah Lee (HS ’18), and honorable mentions to violinists Ruth Kelley (HS ’20) and Bella Ward (HS ’18).  Violinist Delphine Skene (BM’18) won first prize in the college/graduate bracket, with second prize going to violist David Schmitz (MM ’19) and honorable mention to violinist Wei Lin (MM 19). 

Violist Sanaá Lucas (HS ’19) won first prize at the Winston-Salem Omega Psi Phi Talent Hunt Competition at Winston-Salem State University, and is the first violist ever to receive this prize.

Bassist Isaac Present (HS'19) won the Winston-Salem Youth Symphony Concerto Competition in February and will perform Proto's A Carmen Fantasy for Double Bass and Orchestra with the WSYSO on May 21st.  The Omega Psi Phi Talent Search awarded him 2nd prize in their February competition. 

Cellist Jewel Kim (HS ’18) won honorable mention at the MTNA Southern Division competition in January at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, as the sole cellist in the competition.  This past October, she won the NC MTNA Senior Strings division first prize, with alternate going to bassist John Park (HS ’19) and honorable mention going to violinist Emily Lin (HS ’18).

Ella Sharpe (HS'18) competed in the International Society of Bassists International Solo Competition this past summer as one of three American semi-finalists in a field of eleven from around the world, and her bass classmate Elspeth Burdette (HS'18) is a member of the The Dan River Girls, a group that released their second album this past year.  They continue to perform all over the state of North Carolina and abroad. Recently, they have been performing with Martha Bassett, and were featured on her podcast.  

Summer Festivals and Fellowships

Violinist Yasha Borodetsky won merit scholarship for the Brevard Festival’s Concertmaster Studio. William Preucil (Cleveland Orchestra), Jonathan Carney (Baltimore Symphony), Sheryl Staples (New York Philharmonic), and Eric Wyrick (New Jersey Symphony) will be coaching this year. 

Michelle Zimmerman (BM 2019) will be attending the Richard Luby symposium at UNC-Chapel Hill in mid-May.

Lucas Gerbe, Bella Ward and Michelle Zimmerman will be attending the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, VT, from June 24 to July 22, with scholarship awards from the festival. Incoming masters student Sarah Kissinger and incoming PAC student Mie Hirschfield will also attend.

Ruth Kelley (HS ’20) will be attending the Sphinx Performance Academy to be held at Cleveland Institute on a full scholarship. 

Violinist Emily Lin (HS ’18) was accepted into the Aspen Music Festival, and won full financial support through UNCSA’s  Kenan Scholarship Award.

Violist Julian Smart was accepted to the Music From Salem Viola and Violin Seminar in New York, and David Schmitz will be attending the Orvieto Festival in Italy with full scholarship.

Cellist Gustavo Antoniacomi (BM ’19) was awarded the Garth Newel Emerging Artist Fellowship, a full scholarship for four weeks of intensive solo and chamber music study at the Garth Newel Music Center in Warm Springs, VA.  In other news from the cello studio, Josie Greenwald (BM ’21) was accepted to the International Music Festival of the Adriatic, and will be studying cello and chamber music for four weeks in Duino, Italy, and Benjamin Therrell (MM ’19), Johanna Di Norcia (HS ’20) and Adithya Muralidharan (BM ’20) will be studying with UNCSA Professor Brooks Whitehouse at the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington VT.  Elizabeth Cook (HS ‘07, PAC ’17) has been awarded full scholarship to the 2018 Sitka International Cello Seminar with Zuill  Bailey.

For the third consecutive summer bassist Ella Sharpe (HS ’18) will be a member of the National Youth Orchestra-USA.  NYO-USA will give a concert at Carnegie Hall, and then embark on a tour of China and Korea.  All participants in NYO-USA are given full scholarships for the program and tour through the generous support of the Weill and Carnegie Foundations.  Also from the bass studio, Hannah Wilson-Smith (HS'19) will be attending Brevard Music Center's high school program this summer, Victor Stahoviak (UG'20) will be attending Domain-Forget Music Academy in Canada, and Isaac Present (HS'19) will be attending the Boston University Tanglewood Institute this summer on a substantial scholarship.  

Alumni News

Violinist Jubal Fulks, Associate Professor of Violin at University of Northern Colorado (HS '90, BM '93, MM '95 in the studio of Kevin Lawrence) returns to UNCSA on Saturday, March 24 for a recital of 20th and 21st-century works, including three North Carolina premieres. The program will explore Fulks’ experiences and personal connections at UNCSA and includes challenging works for solo violin, violin and piano, and violin and electronics.

Violinist Nathalie Schmalhofer, (HS ’16) won 1st Prize in the Alois-Kottmann Awards in Mainz, Germany, and full scholarship to the Talis Chamber Music Festival in Switzerland.  As a member of the the Malin Quartett, she also won Special Prize at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Conservatory Competition for the best interpretation of the required modern work - a string quartet by Valentin Ruckebier.  In addition, she won the Rotary Club’s Young Musicians’ Achievement Prize, and Performed Wieniawski Legende and Ravel Tzigane with the Chamber Orchestra of Bobingen, Germany.

Violinist Emilia Sharpe (HS ’16) won full scholarship to the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra for 2018.

Bassist Sarah Bryant (HS'17) earned a substantial merit scholarship to Northwestern University and is currently a freshman there.  Last summer she was principal bass of the Brevard Music Center High School Orchestra all summer, and she has plans to return there as a member of the BMC College program this summer.

Bassist Christian Gray (HS'10) just earned tenure as a new member of the Washington National Opera/Kennedy Center Opera orchestra.  

Cellist and America’s Got Talent finalist Kendall Ramseur (BM ’09) released his second album, “Life and Love,” with Sons of Serendip, and his classmate, cellist Devree Lewis (BM ’09) released her first album “Estaciones” with her innovative ensemble Trifilio Tango Trio in 2017.