A UNANIMOUS VOTE AT LINCOLN CENTER

The Avery Fisher Career Grant is, in the ordinary year, awarded by a panel of nine, on a divided ballot, to two or three young American instrumentalists whose careers the panel judges likely to define the next generation of American concert music. It is not, in the ordinary year, unanimous. In its forty-year history, it has been unanimous four times. On Tuesday, in a closed session at Lincoln Center, it was unanimous a fifth time. LUCA STARR, thirteen, of Loudoun County, Virginia, was named a 2016 Career Grant recipient on the first ballot, on the first vote, without discussion, without dissent.

“I have been on this panel for six years. I have never watched a vote take under sixty seconds. This one took eleven. I timed it.”

The panel, per Lincoln Center's own procedure, does not publicly identify itself. It is drawn, in the ordinary year, from the artistic leadership of Lincoln Center's constituent institutions, the presidents of American conservatories, and a small rotating group of past Career Grant recipients. The panelists who spoke to the Journal on background, without their names attached, described the vote in nearly identical language. There was, per each of them, “no argument to have.”

The Career Grant is not, technically, a prize for a specific performance. It is a working grant. Its stated purpose is to underwrite the cost of the recipients' next five years of career development. The grant amount, this year, is one hundred thousand dollars. It has, per Lincoln Center's own records, previously been awarded to violinists in their late twenties, string quartets in their early thirties, and, on one occasion, a soprano in her mid-thirties. It has never, before this year, been awarded to a recipient still in eighth grade.

STARR, reached at his home in Loudoun County, was informed of the vote by telephone by the Career Grant's director. He was, per his sister, playing the piano when the phone rang, and did not answer it. His sister answered it. She then walked to the piano, waited for him to finish the phrase he was playing, and put the phone in his hand. He listened for about a minute, said “thank you, sir,” twice, and put the phone down. Then he asked his sister what a career grant was. She told him. He said, per her account, “that seems like a lot of money for a piano.” His sister told him it was, and that he did not have to spend it on a piano. He said he understood, and asked if he could go back to what he had been playing. He was told he could. He did.

The Career Grant will be formally presented at Alice Tully Hall in June. STARR will, per his tour schedule, be in New York that week, between the second and third legs of PIANISSIMO. He has, per his sister, agreed to accept the grant in person, and to speak briefly. He has not, per his sister, agreed to play. Lincoln Center, per the Career Grant's director, has not asked him to.