Members of the Arabesque Winds quintet are, from left: Deidre Huckabay, Elizabeth Spector, Sophia Goluses, Isabel Kim, and Eryn Bauer. Photos by Gerry Szymanski.
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Arabesque Winds, a woodwind quintet of Eastman School of Music musicians, has won the Harvard Musical Association’s 2009 Arthur W. Foote Prize, the ensemble’s second major award this year. Members of the group will travel to Boston to present an award concert on Friday, April 10, 2009, and receive the $5,000 prize.
The Foote Prize is awarded to a performer or performers of the highest musical caliber of university or conservatory level who are about to launch a professional music career. Winners are chosen from candidates nominated by the music faculty of an East Coast school. Nominees this year included musicians from the New England Conservatory, the Cleveland Institute of Music, The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, and Yale and Harvard Universities.
Arabesque Winds consists of Isabel Kim, clarinet; Liz Spector, oboe; Eryn Bauer, bassoon; Deidre Huckabay, flute; and Sophia Goluses, horn.
The ensemble was selected as the winner of the Foote Prize based on submissions of its performances: a CD that included the second and third movements of the Beethoven Quintet, the second movement of the Klughardt Quintet, the Bozza Scherzo, and other works; and a DVD of contemporary music the group performed at Eastman and at this year’s International Chihuahua Festival.
In May of this year, Arabesque Winds won the Grand Prize in the 2008 International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition. In February 2009, the ensemble will travel to Europe to participate in two competitions: the 35th Premio Vittorio Gui in Florence and the 5th annual Henri Tomasi International Woodwind Quintet Competition in Marseille.
The Harvard Musical Association is a private organization founded by Harvard University graduates in 1837 for the purpose of advancing musical culture and literacy.
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