Not bad for someone who's only been able to vote for seven months! SFCM Pre-College alumna Starla Breshears has won the grand prize at the 41st annual Irving M. Klein International String Competition in San Francisco—along with two additional prizes: best solo Bach performance and best sonata performance.

Breshears, 18, won the grand prize, which includes $5,000 cash as well as a raft of performance contracts (valued at $18,000) with the Peninsula and Santa Cruz Symphonies, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Gualala Arts Chamber Series, Music in the Vineyards, Buffalo Chamber Players, and Musical Masterworks. Her rendition of the first two movements of Johann Sebastian Bach's Partita in A minor (originally for flute) netted her an additional $500 prize, and she was awarded a third prize for best sonata performance for her rendition of two movements of Johannes Brahms' Cello Sonata No. 2 in F major, Op. 99. 

From left: Mitchell Sardou Klein, Jones Lau, Starla Breshears, and James Birch.

The Klein win builds on a landmark year for Breshears, who studied at SFCM from 2015-2025. In March, she joined the San Francisco Symphony's (SFS) cello section, becoming the youngest musician in the venerable ensemble, and while SFS could not confirm that Breshears is its youngest appointee ever, she is almost certainly near the top of that list as well.

Dustin, Valery, and Starla Breshears perform at SFCM in 2017.

"Starla's artistry and dedication was evident from her early start at the Conservatory," Pre-College and Continuing Education Associate Dean & Executive Director Keelin Davis said, while Breshears' private teacher for the bulk of her Conservatory studies, Jean-Michel Fonteneau, called her "one of the most gifted young cellists I have encountered in my five decades of teaching."

Named in honor of cellist Irving M. Klein, the Klein Competition is part of the California Music Center (CMC), which Klein founded after moving to Northern California in 1971. The CMC's board partnered with San Francisco State University to formalize the international competition for musicians aged 15-23, which has grown into one of the world's most prestigious. This year, SFCM hosted the competition, and judges included 2000 alumnus Jory Fankuchen, Music Director of the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra and founding member of the Chamber Music Society of San Francisco, as well as Conservatory cello faculty Richard Aaron. (Breshears studied with Aaron near the end of her time at SFCM, though Klein judges are prohibited from voting for their own students.)

Learn more about studying cello in SFCM's Pre-College or collegiate divisions.