Merz Trio is a winner of the Concert Artists Guild competition
The Merz Trio, which includes pianist and Yale School of Music alumnus Lee Dionne '11BA '13MM '14MMA '19DMA, violinist Brigid Coleridge, and cellist Julia Yang, was named a winner of the 2019 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition. The other winners were cellist Jamal Aliyev, violist Jordan Bak, and recorder player Tabea Debus.
"Each of the winners receives management contracts with CAG, including performance opportunities with more than 40 leading orchestras, concert series, and festivals, as well as a New York showcase performance and professional career development and coaching," according to the organization's news release. Application materials for this year's competition required "a general statement of your artistic intent. This should also include how you plan to use your art to make an impact outside the concert hall."
The Merz Trio, which won first prize at the 2019 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, "is passionate about connecting with diverse audiences through innovative concerts, multidisciplinary projects, and interactive performances," the group's website indicates. The trio's work has been supported in part by Entrepreneurial Musicianship grants from the New England Conservatory, where it is in residence. The Merz Trio was formed in 2017 and won the Lerman Gold Prize and Audience Choice Award at the 2018 Chesapeake Chamber Music Competition in Easton, Maryland.
A founding member of the Merz Trio, Dionne has performed as a chamber musician and as a soloist in venues around the world and has recorded for MSR Classics and Naxos Records. He is a core member of Cantata Profana along with several fellow Yale alumni including violinist Jacob Ashworth '13MM '14MMA '18DMA, cellist Hannah Collins '06BS '08MM '09AD, clarinetist Gleb Kanasevich '13MM, stage director Ethan Heard '07BA '13MFA, guitarist Arash Noori '12MM '13AD, percussionist Doug Perry '14AD, soprano Annie Rosen ’08BA ’12MM, composer-pianist Daniel Schlosberg ’10BA ’13MM ’14MMA ’18DMA, and bass-baritone John Taylor Ward '12MM '13MMA '17DMA. In addition to degrees earned at the Yale School of Music, Dionne has a soloist diploma from the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover, and an undergraduate degree in literature from Yale College.
The final round of the 2019 CAG competition took place on October 6, 2019, at Merkin Concert Hall at the Kaufman Music Center in New York City. Numerous YSM alumni have been among the winners of the CAG competition over the past decade. These include percussionist Mitya (Dmitrii) Nilov '18MM; pianist Dominic Cheli '16MM; guitarist Jiji (Jiyeon Kim) '17MM; double bassist Samuel Suggs '14MM '20DMA; violinists Katie Hyun '09AD and David Southorn '09MM '10AD, and cellist Mihai Marica '04CERT '08AD of the Amphion Quartet; violinist Sami Merdinian '06MM '07AD of Sybarite5; and violinist Sarah McElravy '12AD, violist Eric Wong '12AD, and cellist Felix Umansky '12AD of the Linden String Quartet. The Argus Quartet, which served from 2015 to 2017 as YSM's fellowship quartet-in-residence, was a CAG competition winner in 2017.
The competition has been held since the early 1950s. The Yale Daily News recently published a piece about the Merz Trio. Read it here.
