Alumni Awards: Paul Boylan Award

2025 Recipient

Akropolis Reed Quintet
Timothy Gocklin (BM ’12, oboe), Kari Landry (BM ’13, MM ’13, clarinet), Matt Landry (BM ’10, saxophone), Andrew Koeppe (attended ’12, clarinet), Ryan Reynolds (BM ’12, MM ’14, bassoon)

Founded in 2009, the Grammy Award-winning Akropolis Reed Quintet is “a sonically daring ensemble who specializes in performing new works with charisma and integrity” (BBC Music Magazine). Comprising five reed players and entrepreneurs unbounded by limits or categorization, Akropolis has graced the Classical Billboard charts with each of their last three albums, including the #2 spot in April 2024, and has won seven national chamber music prizes, including the 2014 Fischoff Gold Medal. Having premiered and commissioned more than 200 works by living artists and composers, they are pioneers and champions of a new genre of classical music – the reed quintet.

Composed of the same five members that brought about its founding over 15 years ago at the University of Michigan, Akropolis delivers 120 concerts and educational events worldwide each year at luminary series including Tanglewood, Bravo! Vail, University Musical Society, Chamber Music Northwest, and more. Akropolis became the first ever Grammy-winning reed quintet with their 2024 album Are We Dreaming the Same Dream?, in collaboration with Pascal Le Boeuf and drummer Christian Euman, taking home Best Instrumental Composition for the track “Strands” at the 67th Grammy Awards held in February 2025.

Utilizing their “sheer musical imagination” (Gramophone), the quintet is also known for powerful collaborations with youth and others within its Southeast Michigan community. Certified as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Akropolis runs a Detroit-based summer festival called Together We Sound; holds annual, school-year-long music composition residencies at Cass Tech, Martin Luther King Jr., and Detroit School of Arts high schools; and produces the 10-day Chamber Music Institute focused on artist training and mentorship in Petoskey, Michigan.