Phoenix Avalon, violin

Meet Phoenix

Phoenix most recently appears as a member of the Isidore String Quartet on Show 472: 20 Years of Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Awards.

Phoenix performed on Show 312 in Big Sky, MT, recorded on September 27, 2015, at age 14.

Current Bio:

Phoenix Avalon (age 23) is a recent graduate of The Juilliard School where he worked under the tutelage of Itzhak Perlman and Li Lin as a proud recipient of the Kovner Fellowship.

Originally from Santa Fe, New Mexico, Phoenix began his violin studies at age three with Rick Lohmann and Carmelo de los Santos. Since then, he has attended the Meadowmount School of Music, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, the Perlman Music Program, and was a scholarship student at the Cleveland Institute of Music Young Artist Program studying with Jaime Laredo and Jan Sloman. Phoenix has studied chamber music extensively with members of the Cavani String Quartet, the Juilliard String Quartet, and the Cleveland Quartet.

As a soloist, Phoenix has performed across the United States and Europe and has enjoyed engagements with the Jena Philharmonic, the Cleveland POPS Orchestra, the Boulder Symphony, the Arapahoe Philharmonic, the New Mexico Philharmonic, and Performance Santa Fe Orchestras. He has been featured on USA national radio programs Performance Today and From the Top, as well as giving a solo presentation for TedXABQ.

Phoenix’s competition awards include First Prize at the Banff International String Quartet Competition as a member of the Isidore String Quartet, First Prize at the Louis Spohr International Violin Competition, Third Prize at the Johansen International Competition and Silver Medal at The Fischoff National Chamber Music Association as a member of the Razumovsky Quartet. He is honored to also be a recipient of a 2019 EMCY Prize and the Davis New Mexico Arts Excellence Scholarship.

Phoenix is a founding member of the Isidore String Quartet. Formed in 2019, the ISQ has attended the Ravinia Steans Institute, received first prize and the Haydn prize at the 2022 Banff International String Quartet Competition, and was most recently honored with the 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Actively dedicated to community service, Phoenix has played for numerous fundraisers and outreach programs, and has developed and toured an interactive presentation of classical music history for school children as part of ‘From the Top’s Leadership Training’. Phoenix performs on a G.B. Guadagnini violin, Milan 1753 “Ex-Birkitt”, on loan from Rare Violins In Consortium, Artists and Benefactors Collaborative.

Phoenix Avalon, 14, is from Sante Fe, New Mexico, where he is homeschooled. This fall, he will begin studying at the Cleveland Institute of Music with teacher Jan Mark Sloman. He has soloed with Performance Santa Fe, the New Mexico Philharmonic, and the Boulder Symphony. He is a recipient of From the Top’s Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award, as well as the recipient of successive Performance Santa Fe Davis Awards and of Starling Foundation Grants. In 2015 Phoenix was the winner of the Jackie McGehee Competition and received second place in the MTNA National Competition. Phoenix is playing on an Amati Bros. violin, generously loaned by Kenneth Warren and Son Ltd. In addition to violin, Phoenix studies composition and piano and enjoys philosophical debate, history, and snowboarding.

Phoenix is a Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist.
Scholarship Year: 2016