Lincoln Center chair Katherine Farley presided over the event, the first since Mr. Segal passed away in August of 2012. The honors were presented at a luncheon at Lincoln Center’s Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse.
Lincoln Center president Reynold Levy, who will step down fom his post in January, also participated in the ceremony, as did Mr. Segal's son and daughter, Paul Segal and Susan Rai. Each artist received $7,500 to be used for career advancement and future study.
The Martin E. Segal Awards were established by Lincoln Center's board of directors and a group of Segal's friends and colleagues when he retired as Lincoln Center chairman in 1986. The awards "mark Mr. Segal's demonstrated history of leadership and commitment to supporting and developing the careers of up-and-coming artists."
On a rotating basis since the inception of the prize, two of Lincoln Center's 12 resident arts constituents have been asked to nominate an artist or ensemble associated with their organization to receive the Martin E. Segal Award. This year's winners were selected by the Chamber Music Society and Lincoln Center Theater.
Since the first prize in 1987, the endowment funding the award has given nearly a quarter of a million dollars to 54 emerging artists associated with Lincoln Center. Past winners include pianist Jonathan Biss, the Brentano and Borromeo String Quartets, mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung, director Thomas Kail, dancer Daniel Ulbricht, cellist Alisa Weilerstein, choreographer Christopher Wheeldon and conductor Xian Zhang, among many others. Grant is a graduate of the Juilliard School. Her theatre credts include The Philanderer (Pearl Theatre), Measure for Measure, The Winter’s Tale, The Merchant of Venice (The Public Theater), Roxy Font (FringeNYC), Luck of the Irish (Huntington Theatre), The Laramie Project (England), Unaccompanied Minors (Vanguard Arts), The Children’s Hour (Everyman Theatre), A Raisin in the Sun, Into the Woods (Mainstage Theater) and Body and Soul (Baryshnikov Arts Center). Grant has appeared on screen in "Empire Corner," "Invisible," "Rehearsing a Dream" and "The Good Wife."
