Kevin Lawrence becomes first UNCSA faculty member to receive Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award
Kevin Lawrence, professor of violin and string chair in the School of Music at UNCSA, has become the first UNCSA professor to receive a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award. He will hold a residency at the National Academy of Music in Cluj, Romania, from March through June 2026, performing and coaching American repertoire while sharing the works of American composers with Romanian musicians.
“This recognition is a significant milestone for Kevin and for UNCSA,” said Saxton Rose, dean of the School of Music. “As the first professor from our university to earn a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award, he joins an international community of scholars who are advancing the arts through teaching and performance. His award affirms the level of excellence we see every day in our faculty and demonstrates the impact of their work on a global stage. It also brings added value to our students and the university, as they learn from faculty whose work is recognized internationally.”
Kevin Lawrence
Lawrence reflected on the significance of receiving the award.
“Performing musicians are rarely selected for this award, which is much more likely to be given to scholars in STEM and humanities fields,” he said. “I am honored by this national recognition of my work. As the first UNCSA faculty member in the history of our school to receive a Fulbright Scholar award, I’m also happy to be opening a new sense of possibility for my colleagues.”
He also reflected on the personal significance of the award in the context of his lifelong focus on American repertoire.
“From my childhood, classical music appealed to me for its connection with the vast world far beyond my American suburban experience,” he said. “When I got serious about violin study, my education focused primarily on assimilating a venerable European musical culture, like most American classical musicians of my generation.
Kevin Lawrence performing at the Spring 2024 Chamber Music Festival / Photo: Allison Lee Isley
“There was a magic in taking ownership of music that came from far away and long ago. Still, I always wanted to bring this same level of artistic commitment to music that came from my own country, and throughout my career I’ve regarded the performance of American repertoire as a personal vocation.
“Receiving this award is a culminating experience in my lifelong focus on the music of our immense and diverse country. Having such support for bringing this music to a very different nation with its own historic tradition of fine string playing will be a great gift to me, and I hope, to the musicians and listeners I encounter in Romania.”
Lawrence said he is eager to share this music with Romanian musicians and believes the exchange will be valuable for both sides.
“A friend of mine, a musician from eastern Europe, recently told me about a review she received from the Boston Globe describing her performance of Gershwin as displaying ‘more the sound of Odessa than of New York,’” he said. “A professor of violin at University of Maryland who was a recent Fulbright Scholar in Romania, Irina Muresanu, confirmed to me her sense that gifted students from eastern Europe she coached on American repertoire didn’t tend to have an intuitive sense of how to approach this music.
“I appreciated her conviction that my work with Romanian students on this repertoire would be valuable for them. I believe that this kind of cross-cultural effort is an important means of connecting developing musicians of eastern Europe with the American musical genius, and I’m very excited at the chance for sustained engagement with this work.”
He added that he hopes the residency will build connections that extend beyond his time in Romania.
“Fostering relationships between American artists and scholars, and their counterparts abroad is one of the major goals of the Fulbright Program,” Lawrence said. “Teaching I’ve done outside the U.S. has usually resulted in students enrolling at UNCSA, but beyond this, friends who have been Fulbright Scholars always speak of significant ongoing connections with international colleagues that came about through these residencies. I look forward to making these connections on behalf of UNCSA.”
About the Fulbright Scholars Program
Fulbright U.S. Scholars are faculty, researchers, administrators, and established professionals teaching or conducting research in affiliation with institutes abroad. Upon returning to their home countries they share their stories, often encouraging foreign scholars to campus and encouraging colleagues and students to become active supporters of international exchange. In addition to the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, over 2,000 Fulbright U.S. Student Program participants—recent college graduates, graduate students, and early career professionals—participate in study/research exchanges or as English teaching assistants in local schools abroad each year.
Since 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided over 400,000 talented and accomplished scholars, teachers, artists, professionals and students with the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research abroad. Notable Fulbright recipients include 62 Nobel laureates, 93 Pulitzer Prize winners, 82 MacArthur Fellows, 44 heads of state or government, and thousands of leaders across the private, public and non-profit sectors.
Fulbright is a program of the U.S. Department of State, with funding provided by the
U.S. government. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations, and
foundations around the world also provide direct and indirect support to the Program,
which operates in over 160 countries worldwide. In the United States, the Institute
of International Education (IIE) administers the Fulbright U.S. Scholar and U.S. Student
and Programs on behalf of the U.S. Department of State.
For more information about the Fulbright Program, visit https://fulbrightprogram.org
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September 04, 2025