San Francisco Ballet (SF Ballet) and San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) have selected two new students for the new Denis de Coteau Fellowship for the 2024–2025 school year.
This year’s fellows are Armando Atanda, viola, studying with Yun Jie “Jay” Liu, and Manny Vouse, violin, studying with Simon James.
Both musicians, whose personal and professional experiences contribute meaningfully to an expanded culture of diversity in the performing arts, will receive tuition, housing, and a stipend for SFCM’s one-year Professional Studies Certificate in Instrumental Performance. The two students will also have the opportunity to play rehearsals and shows with the SF Ballet Orchestra, as well as other training and support.
The fellows will live in SFCM’s new Bowes Center, a 12-story “vertical campus” home to three performance halls, practice rooms, a recording studio, residences for students and visiting artists, and more. The Bowes Center is located in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley, across the street from SF Ballet’s performance address at the War Memorial Opera House.
These new students follow Freddy Renaud and Adrian Jackson who were the first students chosen for the fellowship in 2023, both of whom graduated earlier this year. Applicants were selected by a joint committee of musicians and administrators from both organizations. There is no fee to apply. Upon its founding in 2022, the Denis de Coteau Fellowship program was intended to advance opportunities for Black musicians in honor of Maestro de Coteau who passed away in July 1999.
The fellowship follows SFCM and the San Francisco Symphony’s announcement of the fourth Emerging Black Composers Project winner, Tyler Taylor. Both programs are part of the Conservatory’s ongoing commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.