Winners of the 2024 Philharmonic Soloist Competition

The Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic Soloist Competition was held on the weekend of March 16 and 17, with 24 entrants from the students of the School of Music. Andrew Gray, violin, won the undergraduate division playing Karol Szymanowski's Violin Concerto No. 1, and Hope Metts, soprano, won the graduate division singing Gaetano Donizetti's "Mad Scene" from Lucia di Lammermoor.

Both winners will perform with the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic during the 2024-25 academic year, on dates to be determined.

Andrew Gray is a junior studying violin with Prof. William van der Sloot as well as mathematical sciences as part of the BXA intercollegiate degree program. Gray won the School of Music’s Harry Archer Award in 2023. Prior to CMU, Gray was concertmaster of the Maryland Classic Youth Orchestra’s Philharmonic Orchestra and concertmaster of the 2021 Maryland All-State Senior Orchestra. As a chamber musician, Gray was a founding member of the Chasqui Quartet, winner of the bronze medal in the junior string division of the prestigious Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.

Hope Metts is a second-year graduate student pursuing her master’s degree in vocal performance, studying with Prof. Maria Spacagna. Her most notable opera roles include Rose Maurrant in Weill’s Street Scene, Monica in Menotti’s The Medium, Mademoiselle Silberklang in Mozart's The Impresario, and Belinda in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.  She has participated in masterclasses with Sherrill Milnes, Susan Quittmeyer, and Morris Robinson. Metts has also studied and appeared in concert with Simon Estes. She was selected to be a Study Grant Artist with the Savannah VOICE Festival in 2022 and 2023, and was a featured soloist for the program’s 2022 VOICES in the Cathedral concert in Tarpon Springs, FL. Metts has also appeared as a soloist in Handel’s Messiah at the Collegiate United Methodist Church in Ames, IA and Vivaldi’s Gloria with the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic.

The School of Music offers special thanks to the judges of the final round: Mary Persin, Vice President of Artistic Planning for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and Moon Doh, Associate Conductor for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.