“The Aizuri Quartet has won the University of Michigan’s M-Prize Chamber Music Competition, the final of which concluded on May 6,” writes Sarah Shay in Wednesday’s (5/9) MusicalAmerica.com (subscription required). The quartet’s members are Ariana Kim, Miho Saegusa, Ayane Kozasa, and Karen Ouzounian. “The grand prize includes $100,000—said to be the largest chamber music prize in the world—along with concert engagements, a recording, and management by the Concert Artists Guild. Second and third prizes in the strings category went to the Verona Quartet and Vera Quartet respectively. The winner of the [Strings] ‘Open’ category was Invoke, a quartet whose instrumentation alternates among violins, viola, cello, mandolin, and banjo, and whose repertoire ranges from classical to folk to jazz and points between.” Winner of the competition’s Winds category and $20,000 prize was The Moanin’ Frogs, a saxophone sextet comprising Lucas Hopkins, Andy Hall, Jonathan Hostottle, Jonathan Hulting-Cohen, Sean Hurlburt, and Edward Goodman. All rounds of the May 3-6 competition were livestreamed, including the Grand Prize Gala Concert, by Detroit Public Television.
Posted May 10, 2018
