Blair faculty wins prestigious Avery Fisher Prize

Vanderbilt faculty member Edgar Meyer has been awarded the Avery Fisher Prize, one of the most prestigious awards given in classical music

Meyer

. Meyer, adjunct associate professor of bass at Vanderbilt's Blair School of Music, was one of two winners for this year's Fisher Prize, along with clarinetist David Shifrin, director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Each was awarded $50,000.

The Avery Fisher Prize is given for outstanding achievement and excellence inmusic. In existence since 1974, the awards have gone to only 16 people in 26 years. Previous recipients of the award include Yo-Yo Ma, Murray Perahia and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. This year's award was presented Monday night at New York's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

"Edgar Meyer's place in the musical world is absolutely unique," said Mark Wait, dean of the Blair School of Music. "His perspective and intellect are all-embracing, and his artistry is unparalleled. He is the perfect recipient of the Avery Fisher Prize. We are deeply proud of Edgar's affiliation with the Blair School and Vanderbilt University."

Meyer began studying bass at age 5 under the instruction of his father, and continued later with Stuart Sankey. He is the winner of numerous competitions, and in 1994 became the first bassist to receive the Avery Fisher Career Grant. Meyer premiered his bass concerto in 1993 with Edo de Waart and the Minnesota Orchestra, and in 1995 premiered his Quintet for Bass and String Quartet in collaboration with the Emerson String Quartet. Also in 1995, he premiered his Double Concerto for Bass and Cello, in collaboration with the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival Orchestra.

A frequent guest at music festivals and an exclusive Sony artist, Meyer and colleagues Yo-Yo Ma and Mark O'Connor have been widely acclaimed for the Sony release Appalachia Waltz. From 1986 to 1992, Meyer was a member of the progressive bluegrass band Strength in Numbers, whose members included Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Béla Fleck and Mark O'Connor. Meyer also collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma in a recording of Meyer's Double Concerto for Bass and Cello with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, which was funded by a grant from the "Meet the Composer"/ Reader's Digest Commissioning Program.

"The Storyteller," a narrative work for orchestra and based on text by Jamake Highwater, was premiered at Carnegie Hall in 1997 and will be released on Sony disc with another text-based work by Wynton Marsalis. Meyer is currently writing a concerto for violinist Hilary Hahn, which will be recorded with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra for Sony. Meyer performs regularly in a nuevo bluegrass trio with guitarist Russ Barenberg and dobroist Jerry Douglas, and works with fellow Blair faculty member and pianist Amy Dorfman, his longtime accompanist for solo recitals. Meyer is also involved in an inventive trio project with Béla Fleck on banjo and mandolin player Mike Marshall, performing original compositions marrying bluegrass, classical and other traditional styles.

Meyer has performed as guest bass player for many recording artists, including Garth Brooks, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Hank Williams Jr., Emmylou Harris, James Taylor, Lyle Lovett and the Chieftains.

A member of the Blair faculty since 1984, Meyer is married to Cornelia Heard, associate professor of violin and daughter of Chancellor Emeritus Alexander Heard.