We're delighted to present our 2026 First Place Winner, 2026 Jacqueline du Pré Prize Winner for Best Performance of a Sonata, and 2026 Pablo Casals Winner for Best Performance of Bach, cellist Starla Breshears, in concert with Klein-favorite pianist, Elizabeth Dorman. Join us as we collaborate with the beautiful Maybeck Studio in the Berkeley Hills.

This concert is sponsored by William Byerley as part of the Jacqueline du Pré Prize Winner for Best Performance of a Sonata. 

Seating and tickets are extremely limited, so please book your ticket today!

• Bach Gamba Sonata No. 2 in D Major, BWV 1028

• Debussy Prélude à l'Après-midi d'un faune, transcribed by Richard Aaron

• Rachmaninoff Cello Sonata in G Minor, Opus 19

Starla Breshears, winner of the 2026 Irving M. Klein International String Competition, joins the San Francisco Symphony cello section for the 2026–27 season. A Kohl Scholar, she studied at the Colburn Academy with Clive Greensmith. She previously attended the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Pre-College as a Joseph Chan Full-Scholarship recipient, studying with Richard Aaron and Jean Michel Fonteneau. She began cello at age three with Yoshie Muratani and has received additional coaching from Christine Walevska and Sergei Riabtchenko. A prizewinner at both the Stulberg International String Competition and the Johansen International Competition, Starla has appeared as a soloist with 18 orchestras since age six. Her former ensemble, the Breshears String Quartet, has been featured twice as the Violin Channel’s Rising Star of the Week and on NPR’s From the Top. The quartet won First Prize at the 2023 Piero Farulli International Competition, toured Italy, and earned the silver medal at the 2024 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Starla served as Principal Cellist of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra (2025–2026) and Assistant Principal Cellist of the San Francisco Choral Society. She has attended Yellow Barn, Greenwood, and Accademia Musicale Chigiana, and is a YoungArts Winner with Distinction.

Praised by Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle for her “elegance and verve,” pianist Elizabeth Dorman enjoys performing music both new and old as a soloist and chamber musician. A finalist of the 2018 Leipzig International Bach Competition, Elizabeth has been widely recognized as a leading performer for her inquisitive interpretations of Bach’s music on the modern piano. Elizabeth has appeared as soloist with orchestras including the Louisville Orchestra, the Leipzig Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra, the Santa Rosa Symphony, the California Symphony, the Vallejo Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, the Folsom Lake Symphony, the Stanford Summer Symphony, Symphony Parnassus, as a soloist for interdisciplinary projects at New World Symphony, and frequently performs as guest keyboard of the San Francisco Symphony. She can be heard on Delos records as a soloist with Santa Rosa Symphony featuring Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s work for piano and orchestra, “Peanuts Gallery,” and has also recorded the complete Brass chamber music of Andrew Lewinter for Navona Records. Her solo album featuring music of Bach, Scarlatti and Couperin is expected to be released in late 2025. She has been presented as a soloist and chamber musician at venues including the Kennedy Center, Davies Symphony Hall, Herbst Theater, Merkin Hall, Carnegie’s Weill Hall, Leipzig’s Hochschule für Musik, and her live solo performances have been nationally broadcast on NPR and public radio. She has appeared at other festivals including Mendocino, Pacofic Crest, Tanglewood, Britt, Sarasota, Aspen, Toronto Summer Music, Icicle Creek, and the Banff Centre. Working with the Bridge Arts Ensemble, Stony Brook University, and as a board member of the Ross McKee Foundation, Elizabeth has produced concerts, lectures, and workshops for music students and was honored with the Father Merlet Award from Pro Musicis for her work training high school music students in community engagement. Elizabeth and was awarded a Doctor of Musical Arts from Stony Brook University in 2019 where she studied with Gilbert Kalish and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is currently on faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Pre-College and the Pacific Crest Music Festival.

The Maybeck Studio for the Performing Arts is a small performance space located in a private home in the Berkeley hills, built in 1914 by Bernard Maybeck. The studio has a rich tradition of musical performances dating back over 100 years. 

For over 41 years, the Irving M. Klein International String Competition has nurtured exceptional young string musicians from around the world by fostering the development of their performance and professional skills and providing them with performance opportunities and monetary support. It is recognized for the high caliber of the contestants, its unique, nurturing environment, and its commitment to commissioning new works. Now in its 42nd year, the Klein has helped to develop the careers of hundreds of players. Klein laureates make up 42 professors at major programs, 35 concertmasters, 29 orchestra principals, 27 orchestra members, and 11 Avery Fisher grantees around the world. Its notable alumni includes Jennifer Koh, Vadim Gluzman, Tessa Lark, Francesca dePasquale, Nikki Chooi, Jennifer Frautschi, and Zlatomir Fung. Competition prizewinners perform with orchestral, chamber music, and presenting partners across California and the United States and also return to the Klein as mentors, clinicians, jury panelists and board directors, coming full circle in service of the next generation of classical string players.