2023 Sphinx Competition Laureates Announced

January 30, 2023, 1:30 PM · Congratulations to the laureates in the 2023 Sphinx Competition! The competition started on Jan. 26 at the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center in Detroit, Michigan and concluded on Saturday. Here are all of the prizewinners:

Njioma Chinyere Grevious and Brandon Leonard

Senior Division winner, violinist Njioma Chinyere Grevious and Junior Division winner, cellist Brandon Leonard

Senior Division Laureates:

First prize ($50,000): Njioma Chinyere Grevious, of Boston, Mass.
Second prize ($20,000): Alejandra Switala, of Chicago, Ill.
Third prize ($10,000: Dillon Scott, of Lansdale, Pa.

2023 Sphinx Competition Senior Division Laureates.

Over two days, all participants had the opportunity to perform in master classes, with the finalists performing with the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra under the direction of guest conductor Kalena Bovell. Watch Njioma’s performance of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Concerto in G Minor, Op. 80 here (video is cued to start at 35:05):

Cellist Brandon Leonard was named the First Place Laureate in the Junior Division of the 2023 Sphinx Competition. Here are all of the prizewinners:

Junior Division Laureates:

First prize ($10,000: Brandon Leonard, 17, of Stone Mountain, Ga.
Second prize ($5,000): Gabriela Salvador Rieva, 16, of Wilmington, Del.
Third prize ($3,000): Vincent Garcia-Hettinger, 17, of San Antonio, Texas

Watch Brandon’s award-winning performance of Joseph Haydn’s C Major Cello Concerto, performing with the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra and conductor Kalena Bovell (the video is cued up to start with his performance at 31:36):

The Sphinx Competition is a national competition in the U.S. for Black and Latinx classical string players. The 2023 Sphinx competition jury included violinist Jennifer Koh, violist Juan-Miguel Hernandez, cellists Patrice Jackson and Zuill Bailey, bassist Joseph Conyers, Michael Kondziolka of the University Music Society of the University of Michigan, and Detroit Symphony Vice-President and General Manager Erik Ronmark.

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Replies

Richard Pairaudeau

January 31, 2023 at 09:13 PM · Thank you for posting this, Samuel, and congratulations to Njioma and Brandon. A beautiful performance of the Coleridge-Taylor concerto, and of course we also love our Haydn!