Cheryl Fries

Student Sponsorship by Nancy Rutledge Connery

Cheryl Fries, a native of Red Creek, NY, is a bassoonist currently working and performing in Manhattan, NY. Fries began her musical studies in 2004, and has since performed with various ensembles in New York and Boston, including the Rochester Women’s Orchestra and Phoenix Orchestra. In 2012, Fries won the Hochstein School of Music Concerto Competition and was a finalist in 2016 in the New England Conservatory’s Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition. In addition to her passion for orchestral music, Fries enjoys performing and advocating for contemporary music and has premiered several new chamber and orchestral pieces. She can be heard on the 2017 orchestral recording of Ami and Tami, an opera written by Mátti Kovler. Additionally, Fries performed in the Tuesday Night New Music concert series at the New England Conservatory, a student run concert series that serves as a platform for student composers to write and perform new pieces. As an avid chamber musician, she performs regularly with an MSM woodwind quintet and has formerly performed with a piano trio and woodwind quintet in Boston. Fries is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music as a student of Richard Svoboda and is currently studying with Kim Laskowski at the Manhattan School of Music. In her free time, she enjoys playing scrabble and the company of her cat, Edith.