April 11, 2011

Three students recognized for contributions to the arts

Philip Wolf, a cellist and senior mathematics and economics major in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, has been awarded the Johns Hopkins University’s Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts for 2011. Wolf’s $1,500 prize will be presented at a special luncheon in May.

Krieger School seniors Clare Grechis and Andrew Lelin will receive the President’s Commendation for Achievement in the Arts.

The Sudler Prize is awarded to a student graduating from Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Nursing or Peabody, or to a fourth-year medical student, who, in the opinion of a committee, has demonstrated excellence and the highest standards of proficiency in performance, execution or composition in music, theater, dance, fiction, poetry, painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, film or video.

“This is only my third year to be involved in the selection process for the university’s annual arts awards, but all of the judges, including several who have participated for many years, continue to be impressed by the diversity of excellent artistic achievement demonstrated by our students,” said Winston Tabb, Sheridan Dean of University Libraries and Museums, who chairs the Sudler Prize Committee.

Wolf, who will work as an economic consultant in Washington, D.C., upon graduation in May, was recognized for his solo and chamber music activities, submitting a selection of movements from Bach’s Sixth Cello Suite. He plays in the Hopkins Symphony Orchestra; has taught cello to children in the music program at Margaret Brent Elementary School, located near the Homewood campus; and has organized and played in chamber music ensembles in collaboration with Michael Kannen, director of Chamber Music at the Peabody Conservatory. Wolf studies at Peabody with Daniel Levitov.

The President’s Commendation for Achievement in the Arts recognizes seniors graduating from Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Nursing or Peabody who, while demonstrating artistic excellence, have also contributed extensively by service to the arts in the Homewood and/or Baltimore communities. This year, the award was given to two outstanding applicants.

Grechis impressed the judges with her commitment to the Homewood campus music community. As director of the Homewood singing group the Vocal Chords, and as organizer of the Medicine through Music benefit concerts for the Red Cross, she has fostered a spirit of collaboration by reaching out to work with a variety of student performance and service groups. Grechis will earn a bachelor’s degree in May from the Program in Public Health Studies.

Lelin impressed the committee with his involvement with the AllNighters, an all-male a cappella group, and his work as co-chair of the Performing Arts Council. He has helped organize performances at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and other Baltimore venues, and in support of awareness events for the Hopkins Kicks Butts anti-tobacco coalition. Lelin will earn a bachelor’s degree in anthropology in May.