Press Release

Caroline Goulding Receives 

2011 Avery Fisher Career Grant 

18 year-old violinist is one of three recipients of the prestigious prize awarded yesterday at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
 

March 15th, 2011 – Last night, at Lincoln Center’s Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse, violinist Caroline Goulding was among three young artists awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. The other recipients were pianists Benjamin Hochman and Chu-Fang Huang. The Avery Fisher prize is the latest in a series of career milestones for the 18-year-old Goulding who has in recent years also been first prize winner in the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and the recipient of a GRAMMY nomination for her self-titled debut recording on the Telarc label released in 2009.

 

The Avery Fisher Artist Program, established by the late Avery Fisher as part of a major gift to Lincoln Center in 1974, serves as a monument to Mr. Fisher’s philanthropy and love of music, with the Career Grants in particular exemplifying his devotion to helping young artists. Since the first Career Grants were given in 1976, 121 have been awarded (including this year’s grants), and all recipients are currently working musicians. Identified early in their careers, among former Career Grant recipients are violinists Augustin Hadelich and Hilary Hahn, pianist Kirill Gerstein and clarinetist Anthony McGill.  The Avery Fisher Career Grants are designed to give professional assistance and recognition to talented instrumentalists, as well as chamber ensembles, who the Recommendation Board and Executive Committee of the Avery Fisher Artist Program believe to have great potential for major careers. Each recipient receives an award stipend of $25,000, to be used for specific needs in furthering a career.

 

This year’s announcement, made by the Program’s Chairman Nathan Leventhal, along with Charles Avery Fisher and Nancy Fisher (children of the late Avery and Janet Fisher), and performances by the three recipients were taped for broadcast by Classical 105.9 FM ~ WQXR, with host Robert Sherman, to be aired on Wednesday, March 30, from 9 - 10 pm. The 2011 awards mark the 32nd time WQXR has broadcast these festivities, having been a broadcast partner since the first Career Grants were awarded in 1976. WNET SundayArts will also be featuring the 2011 recipients. The performances will also be available online at www.averyfisherartistprogram.org.

 

Still in her teens, violinist Caroline Goulding has already performed as a soloist with The Cleveland Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, Houston Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Cincinnati Pops, Cleveland Pops and the Aspen Concert Orchestra.

 

Caroline Goulding was a First Prize winner in the 2009 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, where she was also awarded the Slomovic Orchestra Soloist Prize and the Buffalo Chamber Music Society Prize.  This season, Ms. Goulding has been presented by YCA in recital debuts in New York, Washington, DC and Boston. She has also appeared with the Sarasota Orchestra, the Charlotte Symphony, in recital at the El Paso Pro Musica Festival. The remainder of her season will include return engagements with both the Toronto Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra. In summer of 2011, Caroline will attend the Marlboro Music Festival in Marlboro, Vermont.

 

Along with her appearances both as orchestral soloist and in recital, Caroline has appeared on NBC’s “Today,” National Public Radio’s “From the Top,” PBS’s “From the Top: Live from Carnegie Hall,” Sirius Satellite Radio, WNYC New York, CosmoGirl Online and the “Martha Show,” hosted by Martha Stewart.  Caroline was also featured on Maestro Erich Kunzel’s last recording From the Top at the Pops. In December of 2009, Caroline was named Musical America’s New Artist of the Month.

 

After winning the coveted first prize of the Aspen Music Festival’s Concerto Competition, at age 13, Alan Fletcher, President and CEO of the Aspen Music Festival and School said of Caroline, “Here was freshness, confidence, radiant technique and perfect optimism wrapped in sparkling beauty.” 

 

Ms. Goulding received a Grammy nomination for her 2009 debut recording on the Telarc label and rave reviews from venerable names in the classical music industry: according to violinist Jaime Laredo, “This is an amazing CD! …Caroline Goulding is one of the most gifted and musically interesting violinists I have heard in a long time; her playing is heartfelt and dazzling throughout.”  Composer John Corigliano, whose Red Violin Caprices she recorded, said, “I wondered why I had never heard of this very special performer. Now I know – she’s 16. But at that age, she gives a totally individual interpretation to my music. I think she will shortly become a very famous young woman and only hope that she gives my other violin works a glance.”

  

Aside from her career as a concert soloist Caroline has made appearances with eminent artists such as Béla Fleck, Anton Nel, Wendy Warner, Umberto Clerici and Elaine Douvas and recently performed her CD Release Showcase in New York’s popular music hot spot Le Poisson Rouge with CD-partner Christopher O’Riley.  

 

Caroline began studying the violin at the age of three-and-a-half under the tutelage of Julia Kurtyka and continued her studies with Paul Kantor at the Cleveland Institute of Music.  She currently studies with renowned violinist Joel Smirnoff at the Cleveland Institute of Music.  She has attended the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Starling-Delay Symposium hosted at the Juilliard School, the Interlochen Center for the Arts and The Ceilidh Trail School of Celtic Music on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.

 

A past recipient of the Stradivari Society, Caroline currently plays the General Kyd Stradivarius (c 1720), courtesy of Jonathan Moulds.