Our Baroque, Classical & Beyond Solo and Concerto Competition for 2027 is coming up.
Live auditions will be held on a Sunday in January. The date is TBA.
Solo Catagories: Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze.
Concerto Competition Category: 10 students will be selected to perform with our outstanding NBS faculty string Quartet. Rehersals with our Quartet will be on Saturday, February 13.
There will be a Platinum and Gold Winners’ Concert on Sunday, February 14, at the Church of the Redeemer in Bryn Mawr. Silver & Bronze Winners’ Concert will be at the Nelly Berman School of Music. Concert times TBA.
A link to sign up will be posted soon.
2026 Competition Judges
Jeffrey Solow
Jeffrey Solow’s impassioned and compelling cello playing has enthralled audiences throughout the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia. His multi-faceted career embraces performances as recitalist, soloist with orchestra and chamber musician, as well as teaching, writing and lecturing on a variety of cellistic topics and arranging and editing music for the cello. Two of his many recordings were nominated for Grammy Awards.
Mr. Solow’s concerto appearances include performances of more than forty different works with orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic (on subscription series and at the Hollywood Bowl), the Japan Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the American Symphony (with whom he also recorded). He has presented recitals throughout the US and in Europe, Japan, Korea, China, Central and South America and has been guest artist at many national and international chamber music festivals.
In addition to performing, Jeffrey Solow is a regular contributor to Strad magazine (London), Strings magazine and American String Teacher and is editor of The Violoncello Society Newsletter (NY). A noted authority on healthy and efficient string playing, he is frequently invited to give lectures and presentations on the subject. His wide-ranging interests include scuba diving and underwater photography, protozoology and paleontology and he graduated with a degree in Philosophy magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from UCLA. These attainments as well as his knowledge in many fields outside of classical music give him an exceptional ability to communicate with audiences of all ages and all levels of musical sophistication, both musically and in personal interaction.
Recognized worldwide as an outstanding teacher, Jeffrey Solow has presented master classes throughout the United States as well as in Canada, Europe, Asia and South America and he is professor of cello and chamber music at Temple University’s Esther Boyer College of Music and Dance. Mr. Solow has served as president of ASTA—the American String Teachers Association—and he is the president of the Violoncello Society, Inc. in New York, the nation’s second oldest cello society.
Dr. Ariane Alexander
Dr. Ariane Alexander received her early musical training at the Julliard School of Music studying with Richard Faber and continued her studies at Indiana University, the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the University of Houston Moores School of Music where she received a DMA degree in piano performance working with Abbey Simon, Horacio Gutierez and Ruth Tomfohrde. Dr. Alexander has performed as soloist and has given master-classes at both the preparatory and collegiate levels throughout the United States and Europe. As collaborative artist and chamber musician she has performed with notable artists including Janos Starker, Yair Kless, Tanya Reminikova, and Sally O’Reilly to name a few. While living in Houston, her students regularly won prizes competing state-wide and at the national level and frequently won scholarships to study at prominent music schools in the United States. Now living in Philadelphia, Dr. Alexander continues to concertize and is on faculty at the Nelly Berman School of Music. In the summers, she teaches at the Italy Summer Music Festival in Pienza and is both assistant director and piano faculty at the BRAVO! Summer String and Keyboard Institute at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.