The Avery Fisher Prize is an award given to American musicians for outstanding achievement in classical music. Founded by philanthropist Avery Fisher in 1974, it is regarded as one of the most significant awards for American instrumentalists. The award is decided by members of the Avery Fisher Artist Program, which is administered by the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; artists do not apply, and nominations are secret. Initially accompanied by an award of US$10,000, recent years have seen the cash allotment increase to US$75,000 and then US$100,000.
List of winners
The list below includes only those individuals who have won the Avery Fisher Prize. It does not include awardees of the Avery Fisher Career Grant or the Avery Fisher Recital Award. The Avery Fisher Artist Program awards the Prize.
1974: (none) 1975: Murray Perahia, Lynn Harrell 1976–1977: (none) 1978: Yo-Yo Ma 1979: Emanuel Ax 1980: Richard Goode 1981: (none) 1982: Horacio Gutiérrez 1983: Elmar Oliveira 1984–1985: (none) 1986: Richard Stoltzman 1987: (none) 1988: André Watts 1989–1990: (none) 1991: Yefim Bronfman 1992–1993: (none) 1994: Garrick Ohlsson 1995–1998: (none) 1999: Sarah Chang, Pamela Frank, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg 2000: Edgar Meyer, David Shifrin 2001: Midori Gotō 2002–2003: (none) 2004: The Emerson String Quartet 2005–2006: (none) 2007: Joshua Bell 2008: Gil Shaham 2009–2010: (none) 2011: Kronos Quartet 2012–2013: (none) 2014: Jeremy Denk 2015–2016:: (none) 2017: Claire Chase 2018: Leila Josefowicz 2020: Anthony McGill