Donate
Shop

STULBERG COMPETITION MASTER CLASSES

May 16th, 2025 – 3:00 – 6:00 P.M.
Dalton Center, Kalamazoo, MI

The Stulberg Competition Master Classes have been a core part of the organization ever since its inception. Each year, these master classes are held the day before the Stulberg Competition. These master classes provide an opportunity for local students, musicians, and audiences to observe and learn from the very same artists that serve as judges for the Stulberg Competition.

APPLY HERE

Applications Open: March 1st, 2025
Application Deadline: April 5th, 2025

Eligibility

  • The 2025 Competition Master Classes are open to violin, viola, and cello students.
  • Applicants must be under the age of 20 as of January 1st, 2025.
  • If selected to participate, the applicant must be in Kalamazoo, Michigan on Friday, May 16th. The Stulberg will not make arrangements for travel/lodging for master class participants.

Master Class Details

  • Eligible violin, viola, and cello students are asked to apply and submit an audition video to determine participation in the master classes.
  • Applications will be reviewed internally and 4-6 applicants will be selected for each instrument (violin, viola, cello).
  • Selected applicants will be notified and assigned a 30-minute time slot between 3-6PM on Friday, May 16th, 2025.
  • Selected applicants will participate in the master class at the Dalton Center in Kalamazoo, Michigan, during their assigned time slot on May 16, 2025.
  • Participants must bring their own piano accompanist. The Stulberg will provide your accompanist a $50 stipend. Practice rooms will be available on-site for rehearsals if needed. Time slots are assigned based on accompanist availability.

Application Guidelines

  • Master Class applicants must perform with piano accompaniment, unless it is a solo work without accompaniment such as solo Bach for strings.
  • Those selected to perform in the Master Classes must perform the same work as performed in the audition.
  • Works composed with accompaniment should include accompaniment in the application video.
  • Pieces do not need to be performed from memory.
  • It is recommended that applicants are at a minimum in Suzuki Book 4 (or comparable) or beyond.

Clinicians

Rachel Barton Pine, violin

Heralded as a leading interpreter of the great classical masterworks, violinist Rachel Barton Pine thrills audiences with her dazzling technique, lustrous tone, and emotional honesty. With an infectious joy in music-making and a passion for connecting historical research to performance, Pine transforms audiences’ experiences of classical music.

Pine performs with the world’s leading orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg, and the Chicago, Vienna, and Detroit Symphony Orchestras. She has worked with renowned conductors, including Teddy Abrams, Marin Alsop, Daniel Barenboim, Semyon Bychkov, Neeme Järvi, Christoph Eschenbach, Erich Leinsdorf, Nicholas McGegan, Zubin Mehta, Tito Muñoz, and John Nelson, and has performed chamber music with Jonathan Gilad, Clive Greensmith, Paul Neubauer, Jory Vinikour, William Warfield,
Orion Weiss, and the Pacifica and Parker Quartets…

READ MORE

Caroline Coade, viola

Violist Caroline Coade is passionate about her teaching and helping her students achieve success and excellence both off and on the concert stage. In Fall 2023, Coade received a promotion to Associate Professor of Viola at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance (SMTD) in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her prize-winning students include 2019 and 2022 Sphinx Competition Sr. Division prize winners, a 2019 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition semi-finalist, the top prizewinner of the Society of Musical Arts 2019 Young Artist Competition, and a finalist of the 2018 Anton Rubinstein International Viola Competition. In recent auditions, Professor Coade’s students have won positions in the Diversity Fellowship for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (2020-2022 seasons), the African-American Fellowship with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) viola section (2023-2025 seasons), and 5 additional students won positions on the DSO viola sub list…

READ MORE

Li-Wei Qin, cello

sponsored by Zhang Financial

An exclusive Universal Music China Artist, Li-Wei Qin has appeared all over the world as a soloist and as a chamber musician.  After achieving great success at the 11th Tchaikovsky International Competition where he was awarded the Silver Medal, Li-Wei has since won the First Prize in the prestigious 2001 Naumburg Competition in New York. “A superbly stylish, raptly intuitive performer” Gramophone Magazine, January 2015) was the description of the cellist’s Elgar and Walton concerti recording with the London Philharmonic.

Highlights in the 2017/18 season includes debut with the London Symphony, Russian Philharmonic, Czech Chamber and Brussels Chamber Orchestras. Return visits to the China Philharmonic, Guangzhou Symphony and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras.

Two times soloist at the BBC Proms in London’s Royal Albert Hall, Li-Wei has enjoyed successful artistic collaborations with many of the world’s great orchestras including all the BBC symphony orchestras, the Los Angeles philharmonic, London Philharmonic, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin…

READ MORE