Violinist and University of Delaware graduate student Njioma Grevious received thunderous applause as she was awarded the first place Robert Frederick Smith Prize of $50,000 at the 25th annual Sphinx Competition in Detroit, Michigan, in late January.
Grevious also won the Audience Choice prize for her performance of the first movement of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Violin Concerto in G minor, op. 80.
Grevious is the first UD student to earn these prestigious honors from the Sphinx Organization.
Grevious grew up in a home where Baroque compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach were played as often as George Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic.
"My mom is behind all of this," Grevious said. "She's got an eclectic taste in music." Grevious’ mother shared her love of music with her three children, signing them up for piano lessons at a young age. Grevious eventually discovered the violin and began studying with Project STEP (String Training Education Program), a Boston-based organization that provides comprehensive music instruction to young musicians that identify with groups historically underrepresented in classical music.
Project STEP is also where Grevious first heard about the Sphinx Organization. Project STEP artistic adviser and one of Grevious' former teachers, Mariana Greene Hill, is a previous laureate of the Sphinx Competition and served on the faculty of the Sphinx Performance Academy, the organization’s intensive summer program for solo and chamber musicians.
Empowering young musicians
The far-reaching impact of these organizations is part of what inspired Grevious to enter the competition.
"My goal was to be in the finals, because in the finals you get to play with the orchestra," she said. "For me as a performing artist, that's what mattered the most — to, in this unique moment, play music by a Black composer, with an orchestra of Black and Latinx musicians, with a Black female conductor."
The Sphinx Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is an all Black and Latinx orchestra comprised of top professionals from around the country. They come together annually at the Sphinx Competition, serving as mentors to finalists, providing master classes and lectures, and promoting works by Black and Latinx composers. Kalena Bovell served as the 2023 guest conductor for the SSO.
The SSO includes past and current members of the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Met Opera Orchestra, and symphonies in Detroit, Atlanta, Baltimore, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, St. Louis and Puerto Rico. SSO incudes faculty members of leading music institutions, including Peabody and New England Conservatories, Harlem School of the Arts, Rutgers University and the University of Michigan.