The essential aspect of career development for any artist involves creating exposure and visibility. At ABC we accomplish this in several ways. First, competition winners are asked to perform as part of the Winners’ Recital for their particular instrument. This event is treated as a professional engagement, with press releases going out worldwide announcing the event and the specific participants, as well as to each of their respective embassies and consulates worldwide. The purpose of this is to create awareness for these artists in their own cultural communities. We also invite ambassadors, consuls, and dignitaries from countries of the participants to come to the Winners’ Recitals at Carnegie Hall.

Immediately after the Recitals, artists are introduced to various sponsoring organizations wherever possible in order to see that they are given performance opportunities. Many artists receive scholarships and are asked to join us in New York in July at The Alexander & Buono Festival of Music, where they attend master classes, daily seminars on how to manage the business aspects of a career, and perform as part of a nightly series of three recitals presented simultaneously in various venues throughout the city. Some of the more established artists are given a place on the management roster of Alexander & Buono Artists, and introduced to organizations in a position to hire them. Through a series of in-home concerts, church engagements, and performances at smaller venues, other artists are able to build their résumés and performance skills and professional credentials.

A recent partnership with the Sorel Organization, a foundation designed to help female classical pianists, composers and singers, has also enhanced the number of performance opportunities we give ABC Winners. 2009 Bradshaw & Buono winners Kana Mimaki and Anna Shelest, for example, recently made their Alice Tully Hall debut as part of this partnership, and Ms. Shelest made her debut in Stern Auditorium in Carnegie Hall in March of 2010 with Maestro Kent Tritle and the Musica Sacra Orchestra.