Starla Breshears, cellist, age 16, is a pre-college student and a Joseph Chan Full-Scholarship recipient at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, studying cello with Jean-Michel Fonteneau. Starla has been coached by Christine Walevska and Sergei Riabtchenko and has performed for masterclasses with Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Alisa Weilerstein and Amit Peled.

Starla has soloed with 18 different orchestras since the age of 6 including the California Youth Symphony, Kalamazoo Junior Symphony, Palo Alto Philharmonic, Symphony Parnassus, and the Nova Vista Symphony. Starla was the 2023 Stulberg International String Competition Bronze Medalist and has also won 1st prize in over a dozen solo competitions including ASTA State Solo Competition, Pacific Musical Society & Foundation Competition, and Grand Prize in the Diablo Valley College / Holy Names University Young Artist Competition.

Starla’s sibling string quartet, the Breshears String Quartet, has been featured twice on the Violin Channel as Rising Star of the Week and on From the Top. The Quartet won 1st Prize in the 2023 Piero Farulli International Competition for Young String Quartets and has recently been accepted to the 2024 Fischoff Competition and the 2025 live competition rounds of the International Chamber Music Competition in Pinerolo, Italy.

As one of the youngest Beares International Violin Society Young Artists, Starla was the loan recipient of a 1/2 size 19th century Hill cello and a 3/4 size 1808 Lorenzo Ventapane. Starla was a Yellow Barn Young Artist in 2022 and 2023.

PROGRAM

SEMIFINALS
Edward Elgar        Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85
I. Adagio – Moderato
II. Lento – Allegro molto

FINALS
Dmitri Shostakovich        Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 107
III. Cadenza
IV. Allegro con moto

BACH
J.S. Bach        Suite No. 6 in D Major, BWV 1012
VI. Gavotte
VII. Gigue