SUNY Potsdam

SUNY Potsdam Student Awarded Prestigious Thayer Fellowship

04.22.10

Benjamin Firer, a senior music education and performance double-major, was recently chosen as a recipient of the competitive Thayer Fellowship in the Arts. The Massapequa Park, N.Y., native was chosen from among many talented SUNY student applicants. This year, the panel of judges decided to split the award between Firer and a dance student from SUNY Brockport.

Thayer Fellowships in the amount of $7,000 are awarded annually to students who demonstrate outstanding achievement and high professional potential in the arts. The award is intended as a bridge between SUNY study and entry into a professional career in the arts.

“Ben is an outstanding musician, trombonist, and budding conductor. His work at The Crane School of Music has been top notch,” said Mark Hartman, a professor of trombone who sponsored Firer’s application. “I'm very proud of Ben and all of his accomplishments. He's a wonderful student and fine young man.”

The Thayer Fellowship was established in 1985 by the late Walter N. Thayer, chairman of Whitney Communications, in honor of his wife, Jeanne C. Thayer, who was a SUNY trustee from 1974 to 1984 and an active supporter of the arts. The Thayers wanted to assist SUNY's most talented young artists at the most difficult period of time for a young professional, when the struggle to make a living can overwhelm even the most dedicated individual.

Nearly 100 applications for the awards are received each year. The applications are evaluated by a jury panel of experts in the various arts disciplines. The finalists are then interviewed in person by the jury panel, and their work is reviewed during performances, readings, screenings, and exhibitions. At the end of this process, the jury panel determines the winners.

Firer, who recently accepted a fellowship to study bass trombone in a music graduate program at Yale University, has performed extensively as a Crane student.

He is a member of both the trombone and euphonium studios at Crane, and formed and conducted the Aries Chamber Ensemble on campus, which performed classical masterworks as well as premiering new work by Crane composer Christopher Nedimyer last year. Firer has served as both second trombone and bass trombone in the Orchestra of Northern New York, and was assistant to the Crane Symphony Orchestra and the Crane Contemporary Music Ensemble. He has also played principal and bass trombone with the Crane Symphony Orchestra, Crane Wind Ensemble and Crane Brass Ensemble. As a student, he has attended summer music festivals at Chautauqua, Orford, Eastern, Hot Springs and Bar Harbor Brass Week. Firer was selected as the first trombonist to perform with the Frackenpohl Honors Brass Quintet, a scholarship honors quintet endowed by Professor Emeritus Dr. Art Frackenpohl.

Founded in 1886, SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music has a long legacy of excellence in music education and performance. Life at Crane includes an incredible array of more than 300 recitals, lectures, and concerts presented by faculty, students, and guests each year. The Crane School of Music is the State University of New York’s only All-Steinway institution.