Project STEP Grads Tony Rymer & Mariana Green-Hill Win Sphinx Awards

[Mariana Green Hill; Tony Rymer (Photo by Glenn Triest)]

Project STEP

“Tony Rymer, a 19-year old cellist who received his pre-conservatory music training through ProjectStep (String Training and Education Program) and is currently a second year student at New England Conservatory, won the 12th Annual Sphinx Competition, February 1 at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit. His winnings include a $10,000 prize, a one year contract for career management, a professional CD from Naxos, and an opportunity to appear as soloist with a number of symphony orchestras. Within two days of his winning performance of the Elgar Cello Concerto (fourth movement), he had already received expressions of interest from the Detroit, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, New Jersey, and Cleveland Orchestras.” 

“Also honored at the Sphinx Competition was Mariana Green-Hill, another graduate of Project STEP and an NEC Preparatory School alumna. She won the Sanford Allen Award in recognition of her 'artistic merit, persistence, and extraordinary achievement.' Green-Hill was named Artistic Director of STEP in June 2008 succeeding the retiring William Thomas. As a STEP student, she studied at NEC Prep from 1990-1997 where her teachers included Farhoud Moshfegh, Marylou Speaker Churchill, and Tamara Smirnova. She also played with the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra and as a member of the highly regarded Amaryllis Quartet. Coached by the late Eugene Lehner, the Amaryllis won the 1995 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition (Junior division). In 1996, Green-Hill won the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Concerto Competition and was a featured soloist with the BSO. That same year, she performed with the Boston Pops and the Civic Symphony of Boston.”