Sunday, May 9, 2004

Max Ortiz Aaron P. Dworkin

2OO3 Michiganians of the Year

Aaron P. Dworkin: Minority musicians hear applause across America, thanks to his notable efforts

By Lawrence B. Johnson / The Detroit News

Aaron P. Dworkin Age: 33 Residence: Ypsilanti Occupation: President of the Detroit-based Sphinx Organization Why honored: For creating new opportunities for minority string players to pursue careers in classical music Comment on this story Send this story to a friend Get Home Delivery

Aaron P. Dworkin remembers the concert nights at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor. What a thrill for the young violinist, a student at the University of Michigan, to hear the great artists who appeared there. It should have been pure inspiration. But something was wrong with the picture.

“I’d see 4,000 white faces in the audience,” recalled Dworkin, who is African- American. “And I’d see no minorities on the stage. I wondered why there should be no place for minorities in classical music, something that was very important to me — something I loved.”

Dworkin, who grew up in New York City and Hershey, Pa., and would earn both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in performance at U-M, figured that young minority musicians who aspired to careers in classical music needed role models. They needed opportunities.

So he sketched out a radical solution — a national competition for young minority string players, African-American and Latino, that would raise their sense of community while raising their profile in the eyes of America’s orchestras.

Thus was born the Sphinx Competition, which in seven years has brought unprecedented training opportunities to minorities in classical music, enhanced music education for all children in cities across the country and allowed African-American and Latino string players to become part of the American symphony orchestra picture.

Each February, the Sphinx Competition holds its junior finals in Ann Arbor and its senior finals at Orchestra Hall in Detroit. Winners in each division receive cash awards, summer study grants and solo appearances with many of America’s leading orchestras. So far, Sphinx winners have played more than 100 such solo dates. Violinist Elena Urioste, 18, of Hartford, Conn., the Sphinx junior winner in 2003 and a freshman at the famed Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, already has performed with the Atlanta, Pittsburgh and Baltimore symphonies, the Boston Pops and the Cleveland Orchestra.

“Playing so much in high-profile situations has really helped my confidence,” she said.

Dworkin got his first competition off the ground when he boldly sent an appeal to James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, and received in reply a personal complimentary note with a check for $10,000. The Sphinx budget that inaugural year was $80,000; this year it’s $1.3 million. Planning and hosting the event is a year-round job for Dworkin, who has also made two solo CDs as a violinist and authored a book of poetry.

While Dworkin says he’s “filled with a sense that I’m making a difference,” he also continues to push the envelope for his kids. He’d like to raise $20 million for an endowment that he says would guarantee the competition’s future.

Don’t bet against him, says Kenneth C. Fischer, president of the University Musical Society in Ann Arbor.

“He’s irresistible,” said Fischer. “He simply doesn’t take no for an answer. He’s an inspiration to anybody in any kind of arts organization. You see what vision and persistence and hard work can accomplish.”