The Stulberg International String Competition opens its 51st year this week in Kalamazoo with a revamped multi-day format and fresh leadership at the helm. Cara Lieurance speaks with Garret Jones, the competition's new executive director, and Anne Francis, cellist and member of the Fry Street String Quartet, who returns to Kalamazoo as one of three adjudicators.
Jones, who previously spent five years in administration — and on stage as a clarinetist — with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, says the role has been a natural fit. "It's just been such a really beautiful meshing of all of those buckets of professional experience that really help a role like this and a small organization succeed and thrive," he says. The organization operates with just one and a half staff members, supported by a volunteer board.
The competition opens Friday, May 15, with free semifinals at the Dalton Center Recital Hall at Western Michigan University, where 12 semi-finalists from five countries — Australia, China, New Zealand, South Korea, and the United States — perform both a solo Bach movement and a concerto. Saturday features free community master classes in the morning, followed by a ticketed finals concert at 7:30 p.m. A new addition this year is a Sunday morning master class giving semi-finalists one-on-one time with the judges. The expanded format responds directly to participant feedback.
The 226 applications received this year — screened anonymously by 15 to 16 local reviewers — represent about a 20% increase over recent years. Prize money ranges from a $1,000 Bach Prize to a $10,000 gold medal, which includes a performance with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra.
The weekend also carries personal meaning for Francis, a Kalamazoo native who grew up attending the competition. "The Stulberg is just another one of these symbols of just this incredibly rich arts community that Kalamazoo has," she says. "Growing up there, I had no idea how lucky I was."
Full schedule and tickets are at stulberg.org.
