A L P E N K A M M E R M U S I K

F E L L O W S

The Fellows program will offer a full scholarship and cover room and board.

AlpenKammerMusik is thrilled to announce our inaugural Fellows Program. Open to pre-professional or young professional musicians, AKM Fellows will have an experience that is both artistically and professionally meaningful. They will act as assistant faculty to festival instructors from top universities and conservatories from around the globe, including Royal Academy of Music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and Eastman School of Music; artists from major ensembles like the Dalí Quartet; and heads of management agencies like Concert Artists Guild. Under the careful guidance of AKM’s staff, Fellows will also act as “shadow” administrators, learning the nuts and bolts of how to operate a music festival that caters to young artists, professionals, and especially talented amateurs. 

Meet the 2025 AKM Fellows

  • Ciara McGuire is a baroque and modern violinist based in Rochester, NY. A passionate performer of music new and old, she has performed concertos with various ensembles at the Eastman School of Music, including Baroque Collegium and Musica Nova. She holds a BM from Oberlin College and Conservatory and is completing her masters’ degree at Eastman, where significant teachers and mentors have included Sibbi Bernhardsson, Yoojin Jang, Marilyn McDonald, and Brad Lubman. Ciara has been the guest concertmaster of the Genesee Valley Orchestra and Chorus since 2023, and has performed with orchestras and in concert series throughout upstate New York. A passionate chamber musician, Ciara is the founding violinist of the Vantage Trio, which will compete in several upcoming national competitions, including Plowman and Fischoff. In June, she will perform Berg’s violin concerto “To the Memory of an Angel” with orchestra, as the winner of the Mostly Modern Festival’s 2024 concerto competition.

  • Constant Clermont is a French violinist who currently studies at CNSM de Paris with Olivier Charlier and privately with Julien Szulman. In his teenage years, he has studied in Cleveland with professor Isabel Trautwein and was associate concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra.

    During his studies in 2020, he founded Quatuor Mirages which was the youngest resident quartet in Fondation Singer-Polignac. They participated in the Verbier Festival Academy and the Aix en Provence Academy, and studied with teachers such as Mathieu Herzog, Gábor Takács-Nagy and members of the Ebene, Belcea, Berg quartets. At the end of 2023, the quartet stopped its activities and Constant decided to focus more on his own career.

    In recent months, he’s had the great privilege to receive advice from great artists such as Noah Bendix-Balgley, Petteri Iivonen, Rainer Küchl. He has performed for Festivals/Organisations such as Festival des Arcs, Les Concerts de Poches, La Chaise Dieu, Festival d’Auvers sur Oise along David Grimal, Augustin Dumay, Michel Dalberto, Emmanuel Rossfelder, Sivan Magen, Meesun Hong Coleman and more. For more than a year now, Constant has taken part in chamber music sessions organized by Musethica and has performed in Barcelona's L'Auditori and in Bonn’s BeethovenFest. He has been invited multiple times to be a substitute with Camerata Bern in places such as Gstaad Festival and will go on tour with them in May 2025.

For a second round, AKM will ask potential candidates to sit for an interview with faculty and staff. 

We are looking for two inaugural AKM Fellows who clearly demonstrate the following qualities:

  • Exceptionally fine playing at an artistic and technical level

  • Demonstrated interest in the professional musical life, evidenced by entrepreneurial artistic activity

  • An interest in music pedagogy, and willingness to collaborate with musicians of all levels

  • Demonstrated economic need for a high level of assistance to attend this or other programs

Please submit the following to be considered in the first round of applications:

  1. Complete the application on getacceptd.com

  2. Submit a video recording of a complete solo work (concertos are acceptable) AND a video of a performance of a complete chamber work

  3. Evidence of your level of economic need (e.g. a letter from your college/conservatory/university outlining your scholarship offer) 

  4. A statement of interest in the fellowship, stating how the position aligns with your career goals

  5. Contact information for three references