The Sphinx Organization provides opportunities for young musicians of color to showcase their talents.
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As a young Black violinist growing up on the East Coast, it did not escape Aaron Dworkin that no performers and very few audience members at classical music concerts looked like him. So as a 25-year-old graduate student in music at the University of Michigan, he had an idea that could help bring diversity to the world of classical music: a competition that would attract the most gifted and accomplished young minority string players in the country.
Dworkin’s violin professor at the University of Michigan, Stephen Shipps, remembers when Dworkin first approached him about such a competition.
“He brought the idea to a lesson instead of playing, and I was originally upset that he didn’t have any music prepared,” says Shipps. “When he told me about his plan, my initial reaction was that he hadn’t thought it through, but within four days I was convinced he had a viable concept.”
So Dworkin and Shipps took the idea to Dr. Paul Boylan, then-dean of the UM School of Music, and asked for funding.
“I was impressed by Aaron,” Boylan remembers, “but at first I was discouraging. I wanted Aaron to go into this with his eyes open. I knew it would be a very challenging enterprise — and it was.”
Boylan made no decision until after he had met with Dworkin several times. Eventually, he offered $40,000 to be paid over three years, and Dworkin agreed to raise money from other sources during the term of the grant. Early donors included the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation, Ford Motor Co., Masco Corp. and the Wolfensohn Family Foundation.
Boylan says he was willing to invest in Dworkin’s proposal because “the objective was consonant with our goals.
“We wanted to recruit minority musicians and help them achieve success,” Boylan continues. “Aaron’s idea fit with the broader agenda of the University of Michigan and the school of music.”
