From his office overlooking Seventh Avenue, a stone's throw from Carnegie Hall, Concert Artists Guild President Richard Weinert is sifting through dozens of e-mail messages when an incoming postingcatches his attention. It's from pianist Tanya Bannister, who is forwarding a Washington Post reviewof her Kennedy Center Terrace Theater recital that took place the previous weekend.

"Throughout the afternoon," wrote reviewer Tim Page, "Bannister played with intelligence, poetry and proportion...I was particularly impressed by the way she gave all of Brahms' variations their own splendid little lives and characters while yoking them firmly into a grander totality."

It's only natural that Bannister keeps Weinert apprised of her musical accomplishments and accolades. In 2003, Bannister was one of the winning performers in the Concert Artists Guild International Competition, an honor that helped launch her flourishing career. Since winning the CAG competition, Bannister has gone on to win the gold medal in the 2005 New Orleans International Piano Competition; performed in London's Queen Elizabeth Hall, France's Salle Cortot, and Tokyo's Nikkei Hall; recorded Clementi: Piano Sonatas Opp. 34, 41 & 50 on the Naxos label; and been tapped as one of six "Artists to Watch" in the January 2007 issue of Symphony Magazine.

"The consequences of winning the CAG competition are significant," says Weinert, who has been with CAG since 2000. "We provide a tremendous amount of behind-the-scenes support to emerging artists, from putting together professional press kits and photographs, to booking recitals and concert engagements, to helping with recording and commissioning opportunities."

Founded in 1951, the Concert Artists Guild's mission is to "discover, nurture and promote young musicians." While the original mission still informs the work of CAG, the organization has skillfully adapted to changing social and market forces, such as the proliferation of new media, the costs and complexities of managing any artistic endeavor, and globalization. In doing so, CAG has earned a sterling reputation as a conduit for exceptional young musicians who are redefining the creative landscape.

"In the early years, our sole thrust was identifying promising young musicians and arranging for them to have a debut recital," says Weinert. "Back then, there were a lot more newspapers than there are now, so concerts would receive coverage and reviews and that would be a major start to a young musician's career. But as the musical field got more crowded, and the number of newspapers dwindled, what we were doing was seen as not sufficient."

In the mid-1980s, he says, CAG added a management component to assist and represent artists who won the annual competition. CAG actively sought collaborative relationships with major orchestras, sponsors of high-profile music festivals, and a host of university and community institutions. Performers stay on the CAG roster for several years - there is no predetermined amount of time - rotating off when they have secured commercial management by firms that represent established career musicians. To date, more than 500 instrumentalists, singers, and chamber ensembles have benefited from CAG's support and sponsorship. (In the same issue of Symphony Magazine that profiled Bannister, more than a dozen other CAG artists were mentioned as upand-coming musicians of note.)

Along the way, The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation has provided ongoing support to the New York organization, both for specific activities and for general operating support. In the early 1980s, for example, Foundation support helped pay for a CAG presentation of works by Erich Korngold, a Jewish composer whose work was banned by Nazis, and who wrote two Academy Award-winning film scores. One year, a Foundation grant helped CAG musician Paul Tobias acquire a renowned Sanctus Seraphin cello that he could use in concert performances, rather than rely on borrowed instruments of varying quality. The Foundation also helped CAG finance the creation and implementation of career development workshops to teach business and professional survival skills to emerging musicians, and helped fund a comprehensive directory of competitions, designed to help performing artists take advantage of new opportunities.

While the Foundation does not routinely make grants for general operating support, the trustees have noted that the Concert Artists Guild is an exception. Weinert says that this long-standing endorsement of his organization's evolving work is noteworthy. "Like any nonprofit, we rely primarily on contributed income, and to expand we have to increase our funding base. Government support has never been a big source of income, and corporate support of the arts has declined overall. So that leaves individuals and foundations. You never want to be excessively dependent on any one source, but at the same time, it's incredibly valuable to have a number of significant, stable building blocks that you can count on."

Weinert says that the unrestricted general operating support the Foundation has provided to CAG "is the most valuable kind of support we get. I think it does a grantee a disservice when you make them jump through hoops to try to tailor their proposal for a specific purpose. The wisest funders are those that, like the Biddle Foundation, make an informed judgment about the value and effectiveness of an organization, and support it because it addresses a need that the foundation cares about."

As CAG enters its fifty-sixth year, Weinert says he is energized by several new initiatives that the organization is spearheading. One of these is expanding the audience for classically trained contemporary musicians. The recently launched Barbes Classical series features CAG musicians playing in the more intimate setting of a bar or similar performance space that traditionally hosts rock or jazz performances. And with the overlapping influences of new and old music traditions, CAG artists like pianist Michi Wiancko are finding inventive ways to introduce their love of hip-hop, country, and avant-garde rock into the classical mix.

Like a proud father watching his children enter adulthood, Weinert says that nurturing young musicians through the early stages of their careers can be bittersweet. "The mark of success is when they leave us," he says. "We help them get started, and begin their track record of recording and performing and earning money. And we work with them to find the top managers who can help them in the next phase of their careers. So even though it's hard to see them leave us, there's a tremendous sense of pride when they are ready to go off on their own."