Individual bios: Stephanie Matthews, Naira Underwood, Adiza Sanchez-Rahim, Patrice JacksonPatrice Jackson, 23, is a native of St. Louis, who is the sixth generation in her family to play a stringed instrument. Ms. Jackson made her debut at thirteen with the Belleville Philharmonic Orchestra performing the Elgar Cello Concerto. Since winning the 2002 Sphinx Competition, Ms. Jackson has already performed with the Atlanta, Detroit, Dallas, New Jersey, Milwaukee, Omaha, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Grand Rapids, Nashville, Hartford, Chautauqua, and Colorado Symphonies, as well as the Philadelphia Orchestra. In June of 2002, she made her international orchestral and recital debut in South Africa. Highlights of the 2005-2006 season include performances with the Chicago Sinfonietta, Hartford and Mississippi Symphonies and a recital debut in San Francisco.
She spent several summers studying chamber and solo repertoire at the prestigious Quartet Program, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival and the Banff Centre for the Arts in master classes with world-renowned Brazilian Cellist, Aldo Parisot. She is a founding member of the Ebony Strings Quartet which was established at the Juilliard School in 2006. Ms. Jackson has also studied chamber music with Claude Frank and the Tokyo String Quartet at the Yale School of Music, as well as the Juilliard String Quartet at the Juilliard School. Patrice was the recipient of the 2002 Yale University Aldo Parisot Prize awarded to "a gifted cellist who shows promise for a concert career."
Ms. Jackson has studied cello with Janos Starker and Aldo Parisot. She is a graduate of Yale School of Music and is currently studying at the Juilliard School with Joel Krosnick. Patrice Jackson performs on an Alberto Blanchi cello generously donated by Franklin and Tresa McCallie of Kirkwood, Missouri and Doris Taylor Cope of Chattanooga, Tennessee.