Avery Fisher Career Grants are awarded each year to artists who are identified as having great potential for major careers in classical music. Past recipients include pianists Jonathan Biss and Yuja Wang; double bassist and composer Edgar Meyer; violinists Sarah Chang, Joshua Bell and Hilary Hahn; and cellists Tommy Mesa and Carter Brey.
Last week, violinist Nathan Meltzer was named a 2026 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient. A Juilliard graduate, Meltzer performs internationally as a soloist with orchestras, as a recitalist and as a chamber musician. He is also co-founder and artistic director of the Green Room Ensemble.
Meltzer made his first appearance with the northern Michigan chamber music collective Viridian Strings in 2025, performing with founders Joe Skerik and Kyle Stachnik as well as pianist Umi Garrett at multiple northern Michigan venues last June.
Those 2025 performances included a recording session and interview in IPR's Studio A.
Meltzer will return to the region this summer for two new sets of recitals with Viridian Strings.
Skerik, Stachnik, Garrett and Meltzer will join forces with double bassist Nina Bernat for recitals in Traverse City and Frankfort this June.
Meltzer, Skerik and Stachnik will also present a series recitals featuring music for string trio in Elk Rapids, Suttons Bay and Arcadia later in June.
“I’m so thrilled to welcome Nathan Meltzer back to Viridian Strings for our summer music series," said cellist and Viridian Strings co-founder Kyle Stachnik." Nathan’s artistry and energy are a perfect match for our ensemble, and we can’t wait to collaborate on these two programs featuring iconic works like Schubert’s 'Trout Quintet' and Mozart’s E-flat Divertimento for string trio. We’re so lucky that we get to bring these exceptional artists like Nathan to Northern Michigan every summer.”
Meltzer and the other three Avery Fisher recipients will be honored at the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space at WQXR in New York on Thursday, April 16. The ceremony, which will include live performances by all four recipients, begins at 8 p.m. ET and will be webcast live at WQXR.org.
About the Avery Fisher Artist Program and Career Grant
Since 1976, 183 Career Grants have been awarded (including this year’s grants), and all recipients maintain active music careers.
The Avery Fisher Artist Program was established in 1974 by the late Avery Fisher as part of a major gift to Lincoln Center and serves as a monument to Mr. Fisher’s philanthropy and love of classical music. The Career Grants exemplify his commitment to nurturing young artists and embody his philosophy to give back to the world what music had given to him. The Program supporting instrumentalists and chamber ensembles who must be U.S. citizens or permanent U.S. residents provides recognition in two categories: the Career Grants, given annually, and the Prize, given less frequently as the highest form of recognition for outstanding achievement and leadership in classical music. Final selections are made by the Program’s Executive Committee and award recipients are chosen based on outstanding artistic merit.
Avery Fisher Career Grants of the Avery Fisher Artist Program are designed to give professional assistance and recognition to talented instrumentalists, as well as small chamber ensembles, who the Recommendation Board and Executive Committee of the Avery Fisher Artist Program believe to have great potential for major careers in classical music. Each recipient receives an award of $25,000, to be used for specific needs in advancing a career. Additionally, the Career Grant ceremony performances are professionally recorded for the recipients’ unrestricted use, archived on the Program’s website, webcast live and later broadcast and streamed by WQXR, and featured on the digital series Taking Note from Great Performances on PBS. As of 2016, recipients receive a custom-designed rosette as a symbol of the Career Grant award. Up to five Avery Fisher Career Grants may be given each year. Recipients are nominated by the Program's Recommendation Board, made up of nationally known instrumentalists, conductors, composers, music educators, managers, and presenters.
