The Sphinx Organization has announced its 2023 Sphinx Medals of Excellence Honorees. The medals, recognizing extraordinary Black and Latinx classical musicians, are cellist Thomas Mesa, soprano Aundi Marie Moore, and composer Joel Thompson. Each medal comes with a $50,000 career grant. Cuban-American cellist Thomas Mesa has appeared as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Madison Symphony Orchestra, and New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. In the 2022-23 season, he will premiere and tour Jessie Montgomery’s Divided for solo cello and orchestra; begin a residency at Colburn Conservatory; and curate and perform chamber music programs with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Aundi Marie Moore made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 2020 as Strawberry Woman in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess; she has performed at L’Opéra de Monte Carlo, Sarasota Opera, and Amalfi Coast Festival, and is a member of the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program at the Washington National Opera. Joel Thompson is composer of the choral/orchestral work Seven Last Words of the Unarmed and composer-in-residence with the Houston Grand Opera and with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. His music has been performed by the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Chicago Sinfonietta, and Colorado Music Festival.
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