US–Korean violinist Ella Eom receives the gold medal and $10,000
The final round of the 2026 edition of the Stulberg International String Competition took place on 16 May at the Dalton Center in Kalamazoo, MI, US.
This year’s gold medal was awarded to US–Korean violinist Ella Eom, 20, receiving $10,000 and performance engagements with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra and the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra. She also received the $1,000 prize for the best performance of Bach.
The silver medal and $7,000 were won by Chinese violinist Mingzhe Ye, 16, who also received a performance engagement with the Western Michigan University Symphony Orchestra. The bronze medal and $5,000 went to US cellist Katarina Kenney, 17, along with a performance engagement with the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Orchestra.
Awards of $1,000 were given to each of the remaining finalists and semi-finalists who did not receive medals. They were violinists James Birch, Chanhee Jin, Euisun Hong and Jayden King, and cellists Ray Gu, Jesse Krentz, Daniel Lee, Oliver Mar and Eiline Tai.
Among her accolades, Eom has previously won the first prize at the 2023 Adelphi Young Artists Competition senior division, the 2021 International Grande Music Competition, and the Bravura Philharmonic Concerto Competition. She is also a violinist in the FaMa Quartet, which won the gold medal of the 2023 Fischoff Competition junior division, and second place in the 2022 Coltman Chamber Music Competition.
Eom is studying with Laurie Smukler at the Juilliard School while concurrently pursuing a biology degree at Columbia University. As part of the Yang Lab at the university’s Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, Eom is researching resistance mechanisms and lung cancer treatments.
The jury for this year’s competition comprised violinist Suli Xue, violist James Dunham and cellist Anne Francis-Bayless.
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