Three UNCSA students from North Carolina selected for Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra

Three high school students in the School of Music at UNCSA have been selected to participate in Carnegie Hall’s prestigious National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA) this summer. Double bassists Gavin Hardy, a high school senior from Winston-Salem; Michael Stratford, a high school junior from Mooresville; and Simon Vázquez-Carr, a high school senior from Durham, have been recognized by Carnegie Hall as being among the finest players in the country following a comprehensive and highly selective audition process.

The three double bassists, who study with Paul Sharpe at UNCSA, are among 103 outstanding young musicians, ages 16-19, selected from across the country to participate in the orchestra, free of charge. Both Hardy and Vazquez-Carr previously participated in NYO as well as NYO2, a program for younger musicians. The UNCSA double bass studio has had a student selected for either NYO-USA or NYO2 in eight of the last nine years.

This year, members of the NYO will travel to New York in late July for an intensive two-week training residency at Purchase College, State University of New York (SUNY) during which they will work with a faculty made up of principal players from renowned professional orchestras. Celebrated conductor Marin Alsop leads NYO-USA at the orchestra’s annual Carnegie Hall concert on Aug. 5, presented as part of World Orchestra Week (WOW!) — a weeklong celebration of international youth orchestras — followed by a South American tour which includes stops in Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and more. Both at Carnegie Hall and abroad, the orchestra will perform Barber’s Symphony No. 1, Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” with Jean-Yves Thibaudet as soloist, and Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade.”

“The NYO-USA program is, without a doubt, the most sought-after opportunity by talented high school orchestral musicians in the nation,” said Sharpe. “The UNCSA double bass studio has had tremendous success, and I could not be more proud of these students. The preparation is arduous and requires a critical ear both from the students themselves (and from their teacher!) — the standard is nothing less than professional. And whether a student gets in or not, the process to get there is really, really valuable.”

He continued, “It takes real grit, focus and persistence to reach the level of a successful NYO-USA audition. Just trying to reach that standard can really aid their development as musicians in a way nothing else can. So, I’m always glad when a student wants to go for it.”

Gavin Hardy

Gavin Hardy, from Winston-Salem, started his journey as a string musician playing the violin and cello, but after hearing the double bass' warm, resonant and powerful sound at the age of 12, he was hooked. During his study with Sharpe in UNCSA High School, he was invited, along with four other bassists internationally, to participate in the Pirastro Strings Elite Soloists Program. He was selected as the winner of the 2021-22 Harlan Duenow Young Artist Concerto Competition and was the winner of the 2023-24 Peter Perret Solo Competition, performing the third movement of Andrés Martín’s Concerto for Double Bass with the Winston-Salem Symphony in March 2024. Hardy has been accepted into prominent youth orchestras including both the National Youth Orchestra’s NYO-2 and NYO-USA programs, along with the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Young Artist Orchestra. Recently named a Jack Kent Cooke Artist, he will be heard on a future broadcast of NPR’s “From the Top.” 

Simon Vázquez-Carr

Simon Vázquez-Carr, from Durham, has played the bass for six years. He began studying with Sharpe in his freshman year of UNCSA High School. During this time Vázquez-Carr was selected to participate in Carnegie Hall’s NYO2 program, named an alternate in the 2023 International Society of Bassists Solo Competition, and attended the International Chamber Music Academy in Ochsenhausen and Jeff Bradetich’s master class in Mittenwald, both in Germany, in 2023. Although the bass is his instrument of choice, he explored other instruments well including piano and guitar, and sang as a member of the Wilmington, Delaware, Children's Choir and later played in his school's band, jazz band, choir and chamber choir. He started playing bass in the Kennebec, Maine, Valley Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Michael Stratford

Michael Stratford, from Mooresville, started playing bass in the fourth grade. At the age of 12, they began studying with Adam Booker from Appalachian State University, eventually being accepted to study with Paul Sharpe in the UNCSA High School. Before attending UNCSA, they performed frequently, including working under the baton of Christopher James Lees as principal double bass of the Charlotte Symphony Youth Orchestra, and served as principal double bass for NCMEA All State Orchestra in 2022. They have also found success in solo competitions, including being selected as a finalist in the Charlotte Symphony Guild’s Young Artist Concerto Competition in 2022 and the 2024 Peter Perret Young Talent Search Concerto Competition. As a member of the UNCSA high school double bass quartet, they performed at the recent the Winston-Salem Symphony’s Symphony by the Glass event preceding Edgar Meyer’s performance with the orchestra in 2024. 

Paul Sharpe, professor of double bass at UNCSA since 2007, is also active internationally both as an orchestral and chamber musician and as a soloist. He has performed and taught throughout the world: in Germany at Villa Musica and the International Chamber Music Academy of Southern Germany; the International Double Bass Encounter in Brazil; the Paris Conservatory; Poland’s World Bass Festival; and in Italy at the Orfeo Music Festival. In the United States, he has given master classes and performed recitals at many conservatories and universities, including the Cleveland Institute, the University of Iowa, the University of Michigan, University of North Texas, University of Denver and Shenandoah Conservatory. As soloist, he has performed with the UNCSA Wind Ensemble, Winston-Salem Symphony, Boise Philharmonic, Anchorage Symphony, Orquestra de Camara Theatro Sao Pedro (Porto Alegre, Brazil), Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival Orchestra, Lubbock Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Chamber Orchestra and Aspen Young Artists Orchestra. He greatly enjoys performing with the eclectic bass quartet Bad Boys of Double Bass, and his work as a member of the unique cello-bass duo Low and Lower has pushed him from the traditional role of a classical double bassist into singing, acting, composing, arranging and more. Alumni from his UNCSA double bass studio have recently won positions in the Philadelphia Orchestra, Charlotte Symphony, Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra in Japan, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and El Paso Symphony. In seven of the last eight years, a member or two of his UNCSA High School studio has been appointed to the NYO-USA or NYO2 orchestras. Prior to joining the faculty at UNCSA, he was a tenured professor at Texas Tech University; adjunct faculty at University of North Texas; and an instructor at Augustana College (Rock Island, Illinois) and the Preucil School of Music in Iowa City. His principal teachers are Jeff Bradetich and Diana Gannett.

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