First Place Win at 18th Annual Sphinx Competition
February 4th, 2015
18th Annual Sphinx Competition
January 28–February 1, 2015
At the 18th Annual Sphinx Competition held in Detroit, MI, Hannah White became the fifth Music Institute student to win the Junior Division during the past 10 years. Hannah, 15, lives in Germantown, Wisconsin; she studies with Almita and Roland Vamos and Hye-Sun Lee and is the Betsey and John Puth Academy Fellow. Placing second was Mira Williams, 17, from Chicago, a former student in the Music Institute’s Academy for gifted pre-college musicians who studies viola with Roland Vamos.
The Sphinx competition is open to all junior high, high school, and college-age black and Latino string players residing in the U.S. The Sphinx Competition offers young black and Latino classical string players a chance to compete under the guidance of an internationally renowned panel of judges and perform with established professional musicians in a competition setting.
As the Junior Division winner, Hannah receives a cash prize, solo appearances with major orchestras, performances with the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra and at the Finals Concert, and a nationally broadcast radio appearance on From the Top. She was Junior Division 3rd place Laureate in 2014 and Junior Division Semi-Finalist in 2013.
MIC's Winning History at the Sphinx Competition
2015: 1st Hannah White, violin (Almita and Roland Vamos, Hye-Sun Lee)
2nd Mira Williams, former viola Academy student (Roland Vamos)
2014: 2nd place Laureate Mira Williams, viola (Marko Dreher)
3rd place Laureate Hannah White, violin (Hye-Sun Lee)
2nd (Senior Division) Clayton Penrose Whitmore,
violin alumnus (Almita Vamos)
2012: 1st Ade Williams, violin (Almita and Roland Vamos)
1st (Senior Division) Gabriel Cabezas, cello alumnus (Hans Jorgen Jensen)
2011: 1st Alexandra Switala, violin (Almita and Roland Vamos)
2008: 1st Clayton Penrose-Whitmore, violin (Almita and Roland Vamos)
2006: 1st Gabriel Cabezas, cello (Hans Jorgen Jensen)