Prep Alum Wins Senior Division at Sphinx Competition
Cellist Thomas Mesa went on from YPO and lessons at NEC to collegiate studies at Juilliard and Northwestern.
Twenty-five-year-old Cuban-American cellist Thomas Mesa ’08 Prep is the first place winner in the Senior Division of the Sphinx Competition, held in February. At New England Conservatory, Mesa studied cello with Mark Churchill and was a member of the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra.
Held every year in Detroit, Michigan, the Sphinx Competition is open to all Junior High, High School, and College age Black and Latino string players residing in the United States. 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 to perform with established professional musicians in a competition setting. Its primary goals are to encourage, develop and recognize classical music talent in the Black and Latino communities.
Thomas Mesa, currently a doctoral candidate at Manhattan School of Music following collegiate studies at Juilliard and Northwestern University, is a member of the St. Petersburg Piano Quartet. He has toured with "Itzhak Perlman and Proteges" both nationally and internationally and has appeared on numerous occasions with The Crossing Choir, most notably at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the U.S. premiere of Astralis by Wolfgang Rihm for choir and solo cello. In addition to performances around the country, he has appeared on PBS’s “From the Top.”