KALAMAZOO, MI — It began in 1975 with a small group meeting in a Kalamazoo home planning how to honor Dr. Julius Stulberg, a beloved violin professor and orchestra conductor who had died recently. They decided to start a simple annual competition for string instrument musicians who were under the age of 20.
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Julius StulbergA half-century later this annual event is a renowned event known as the Stulberg International String Competition. Prize winners over the decades have included performers like virtuosic violinists Joshua Bell and Rachel Barton Pine. The humble competition that first attracted performers from only a small region now is a prestigious international competition that draws the most accomplished young performers around the world on violin, viola, cello, and double bass.
“We have a very large reach to China. Last year we had 63,000 people live-stream the competition from China,” says Megan Yankee, Stulberg’s executive director. “And we get a large number of applicants from China and South Korea. We had one girl this last year who made it through the judging to become a semifinalist; she was from Wuhan and she traveled with her mom. They did not speak very much English and we paired them with some Chinese families here to make sure they had a good experience.”
Beloved conductor leaves a long-lasting legacy
Julius Stulberg was a violin professor at Western Michigan University and conductor of the University Symphony Orchestra from 1945 to 1974. He also conducted the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Orchestra from 1941 to 1974. He died in 1974 at age 61. His widow, Esther Leiberman Stulberg, soon set out to create an appropriate memorial for her husband. The first competition — then called the Stulberg Auditions — was held in 1976.
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Julius and Esther StulbergA couple of years later the founding group was joined by Grace Field, a longtime cello teacher in Kalamazoo who had known Julius and his family.
From dining room to world stage
“After (Julius) passed away, Esther started this Stulberg competition, and the board used to meet in her dining room on Sundays once a month,” Field says. “He was a real mover and shaker. He did a lot for Kalamazoo musically. He was very well-liked; kids loved him in the orchestras. He used to call them ‘My little children.’ He was so very warm. And I don’t think anybody could’ve said anything negative about him.”
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Julius Stulberg conducts the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Orchestra in 1967 at Pretty Lake near Mattawan.Being on the early Stulberg board essentially meant you were the staff for the event. “They were in charge of everything,” Field says. “They didn’t have (board) terms; some stayed for a very long time.” Field was on a committee that selected three judges for the semifinal and final rounds of each competition, and eventually, she was the board president for a long time.
“I was there when Joshua Bell came,” Field says, referring to the renowned violin virtuoso who was 12 at the time. “At the beginning of his piece, he forgot the music. It was his first big competition and he had the wherewithal to stop and say, ‘I’m sorry, I lost my train of thought. Can I start over?’ And he did.” That was the 1980 Stulberg when Bell won the bronze prize. He returned the next year and won gold."
At 50, the Stulberg continues to grow
For the 2024 competition held last May, there were 237 applications, a record. Each applicant submits a video of them playing the work they would play if they made it to the semifinals. A process involving many judges selects 12 players who are invited to Kalamazoo to perform in the semifinals before three special judges. Those judges pick six contestants to play in the final competition where the same judges decide who the top three performers are. The judges for the 50th-anniversary competition next May will be violinist Rachel Barton Pine, a past Stulberg medalist; Grammy Award-winning composer and conductor Lucas Richman; and renowned cellist Li-Wei Qin.
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Megan Yankee, Executive Director of the Stulberg International String CompetitionDuring its half-century of existence, the Stulberg has had more than 2,500 applications from would-be contestants. Both Field and Executive Director Yankee say the playing skill has gotten very high.
Field, a cellist in the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra from 1958 to 1988, says, “But nowadays — oh my gosh — they’re all so good it’s so hard to pick the ones that should go on to the next round.” Yankee adds, “It just keeps getting better and better. It’s unreal; it’s like nothing you can even imagine that these are just kids. I mean they’re under 20 and their sophistication and skill are way beyond their years. It’s very competitive to get in.
“There’s not a ton of competitions for this age bracket so that makes us special. . . . They all want performance opportunities, which are very challenging to come by. The opportunity to stand in front of an orchestra and perform is really hard to get, so that is one of the big appealing prizes. It’s not just the cash.”
As part of the awards for winning, Stulberg medalists perform the season following the competition with various orchestras, including the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra, the Western Michigan University Symphony Orchestra, the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Orchestra, and others. The cash prizes are $10,000 for gold; $7,000 for silver; and $5,000 for bronze.
The Stulberg Competition consistently gets applicants from top-tier music schools and the very best teachers; Yankee mentions students of violinist Itzhak Perlman and cello professor Hans Jensen. She says, “It’s because we’ve had such a good, long, solid reputation as being such a quality competition, so it is just a nice feather in our cap to see those really high-level teachers continually send students. It’s like we’re doing something right.”
Past winner violinist Rachel Barton Pine to perform on Nov. 23
To help celebrate the Stulberg’s 50th anniversary, a well-known past prize winner will give a concert in Kalamazoo on Saturday, Nov. 23. She is violinist Rachel Barton Pine, who has played with many of the best orchestras and famous conductors. In 1986 at age 11 she won the Stulberg Silver Prize; she was the youngest contestant that year. Six years later, at age 16, she placed first in the J. S. Bach International Violin Competition in Germany. She was the first American to get the gold prize and also the youngest winner.
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Rachel Barton, age 14, winner of the Stulberg Bronze Medal in 1990.In 1990 at the age 14, she won the Stulberg Bronze Prize. Pine likes to talk about her experience in Kalamazoo: “I was in the finals one more time the next year when I was 15 and I got no prize at all. . . . Obviously, I wasn’t getting gradually worse as a player, but it just shows you about how competitions show how each person plays on that day and what the judges’ taste is and so on. . . . I love being able to tell that story because for everybody that doesn’t win, they can still go on to have a pretty darn good life.”
The value of music competitions goes beyond prizes
Pine emphasizes that competitions for young musicians are much more than prizes, money, and adding to a resume; they are also about learning and getting acquainted with your peers. She had the good fortune to compete in the 1990 Stulberg when legendary violinist Yehudi Menuhin was a judge. “The second time I played, Menuhin was one of the judges and I got such good advice from him. Those are the kind of experiences that are just so important for a young artist’s development,” she says.
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Lisa-Marie MazzuccoRachel Barton PinePine occasionally plays rock and heavy metal music, sometimes with noted performers of those genres. “My motivation has never been to encourage classical fans to become rock fans; it’s always been the opposite. Rock is very closely related to classical. So many of the great rock artists were inspired by classical or studied classical as kids or are fans of classical music, and if you’re a fan of a rock band that loves classical, well maybe you should listen to what they’re listening to and give classical a try,” she says. “So I’m really trying to find any way I can to introduce new listeners to my favorite music, which is classical.”
Pine sponsors a foundation named after her. “I try to make the opportunity for music, the awareness of this great music, available to more kids that otherwise might not be as exposed to it. . . . It’s really all about serving, serving my fellow human beings, and serving the art form.” She has promoted work by Black composers since 2001 and the foundation has compiled a list of about 500 of them all over the world, starting in the 1700s.
Pine credits faith for her talent and successful career. “I first heard a violin in church one Sunday when I was three years old and some middle-school-age girls were playing violin and I was really drawn to the sound,” she says. “My earliest performances were during worship at church, playing music at age four, and I think that’s really impacted who I am as a performer.
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Rachel Barton (second from left in this Kalamazoo Gazette clipping) at age 11 won the silver medal in the 1986 Stulberg Competition."I grew up in this environment where everybody is listening to the music together and I might happen to be the one playing it but we’re all on the same side. And so it’s just a question of sharing music and almost feeling like the audience’s experience of sharing the music makes them not just passive observers but participants.
"And I play differently when I’m in a room with that. So this sense of things — of music as a gift and a mission and music as something to share together — those are lessons that I learned in worship and I’ve brought with me, no matter where I take my violin, whether I’m playing in a homeless shelter, playing in a school, or playing on one of the world’s major stages.”
Pine’s concert in Kalamazoo will be at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 23, in Dalton Hall at Western Michigan University. The opportunity to see some of the most accomplished young string musicians around perform and compete takes place at the 50th Annual Stulberg International String Competition at Western Michigan University on May 17, 2025. For more information, see the Stulberg
website.