01/11/2025
Real-life note written by Carlos Avila about after his audition:
Dear Dean Guzelimian,
Greetings! I don’t think I’ve spoken to you since you were able to secure hall space for Yuja and Maestro Salonen on short notice, and I don’t think I ever thanked you properly for doing so, so permit me to say “thank you” now!
I’m writing to you today on an altogether different manner, and I hope I’m not crossing any boundaries. If I am, please feel free to ignore this message completely. But it it’s an important matter to me. After some conversation with Richard Aaron, he encouraged me to share my thoughts with you recently regarding the Kovner Fellowship recommendation for Zlatomir Fung.
Zlatomir is a prospective B.M student whom I have to come to know quite well in the past couple years through my position on the Collaborative Piano Faculty at the Heifetz International Music Institute. Though I have no official say in recommending him, it is without hesitation that I can tell you in all the years of playing for cellists and of the hundreds of cellists I’ve seen audition for Juilliard, I have never come across a talent at such a young age so vibrantly filled with intellect, passion, impeccable technique, and unique vision. I truly believe this boy is someone quite different and is destined to become one of the most influential musicians of the next generation – the very talents we seek to nurture at Juilliard.
Zlatomir and I have also been on two Heifetz tours together. Aside from his musicianship, I have witnessed him to be a young man far beyond his years in maturity, composure, and knowledge, with a compassionate soul and an undying intellectual curiosity. I really have never seen anybody his age quite like him.
Certainly no other applicant has moved me to write to the Dean! Again, I apologize if this email is outside the boundaries of my work at Juilliard, and I thank you for your time and consideration.
Yours sincerely,
Carlos Avila
Talent is talent, no matter the age!
Don’t miss Carlos Avila share other stories in FLARE Podcast #2
