Solo string festival 2025

Solo String Festival

May 9 and 10, 2025
Application Deadline: April 21, 2025 - $25 application fee
Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall

Congrats!
2023 Solo String Festival Winners!

Jessie Montgomery Competitive Division Winners:

Debut Competitive Division Winners:

Concerto Competition Winners:

Community Competitive Division Winner:

Special Award Winners:

Justice Johnson
Isabella Media
Malak Ali
Elijah Stallworth
Chris Ramirez
Darryl Angkico
Eliza Stallworth
Atalya Macharia
Lenya Le
Emeraude Tshidibi
Mason Nguyen
Derek Nguyen
Devin Nguyen
Ashley Contrera-Avila
Anthony Roberts
Alena Kang
Lynn Terao
Olivia Brown
Madison Cole
Eden Pawlos
Avi Spillers

About

Key to Change presents its annual Solo String Festival for middle and high school violin and viola students who live and attend school in South King County.

Students will perform and compete for prizes and participate in masterclasses and group classes with guest artist instructors. Additionally, students will receive lunch, have an opportunity to watch other participants perform, and attend the awards ceremony at the conclusion of the festival.

Eligibility

The following groups of students are eligible to participate in the Solo String Festival:

Students participating in their respective school orchestra programs, local youth symphony orchestras, and/or taking private lessons with a studio teacher in South King County are all eligible.
Students who do not have a private lesson teacher are also encouraged to enter the Solo String Festival.
Students living in South King County who do not participate in any of the aforementioned are also eligible.
All students who are currently enrolled in Key to Change studio are also eligible to participate in the Solo String Festival.

South King County is defined as: Auburn, Black Diamond, Burien, Covington, Des Moines, Federal Way, Enumclaw, Kent, Maple Valley, Muckleshoot Reserve, Normandy Park, Rainier Beach, Renton, SeaTac, Skyway, Tukwila, and White Center.

Note: Students who are also enrolled in the MY Southeast Orchestra program sponsored by the Seattle Youth Symphony, Cleveland and Franklin High Schools or attend middle or high schools in the Auburn, Highline Federal Way, Kent, or Renton School Districts are also eligible.

Masterclasses

This year, students will have the opportunity to attend and perform in various masterclasses throughout the festival with guest artists. These guest artists will work with participants on repertoire, technique and other performance related matters. Students of all musical levels and backgrounds are expected to participate.

Guest artist masterclass instructors include:

Christian Howes, professional jazz violinist
Han Jorgen Jensen, professor of cello, Northwestern University
Irina Muresanu, professor of violin at University of Maryland – College Park

Schedule

A master schedule of student performances will be sent out one week before the festival begins.

Applicants must complete and submit the registration form no later than Sunday, April 27, 2025 (11:59pm). Applicants must also complete the $25 application fee (scholarships are available for those students who require financial assistance).

Divisions

Jessie Montgomery String Competitive Division
Grades: 6-12
Who: Students currently enrolled at Key to Change in Young Artist Academy, COMBO or private lesson programs.
Performance Time Limit: A total of up to 20 minutes

Repertoire Requirement: Competitors must perform at least two different musical works. Concertos, concertinos, sonatas, short pieces, or etudes are permitted. Competitors must also be prepared to perform one of the following major and minor scales: F# major/D# minor, E-flat major/C minor, G-flat major/E-flat minor; or C-flat major/A-flat minor.

Please note: If a competitor elects to perform a concerto in its entirety (all movements), and it is memorized, only one additional piece is required – not two, as stated above.

Prizes:

1st place – $1,000 college scholarship, a solo debut with a community orchestra, a set of high-quality strings, a year-long tuition-free (beginning fall 2025) scholarship for music lessons at Key to Change, opportunity to perform in a guest masterclass, an opportunity to perform live on the radio on Classical KING FM’s Northwest Focus Live program and Unmute The Voices. They will also receive press opportunities in the local news and through Key to Change’s social media platform.
2nd place – a set of high-quality strings, an opportunity to perform in a guest masterclass and invited to perform at select events sponsored by Key to Change. They will also receive opportunities to be in the local news and featured on Key to Change’s social media platform.
3rd place – a set of high-quality strings and invited to perform at select events sponsored by Key to Change. They will also receive opportunities to be in the local news and to be featured on Key to Change’s social media platform. At the judges’ discretion, they may recommend a second place winner(s) to also appear on the radio programs Northwest Focus Live or Unmute The Voices.
Please note:
- Key to Change reserves the right to veto the judges’ decision and select other winners to make the radio appearances, in the event that the student winner(s) are not musically prepared or performance ready. The winner(s) will also forfeit their scholarship awards, radio and other performance appearances.
- Previous first place winners of the Jessie Montgomery Division are eligible if there has been a two year reprieve between winning the top prize. However, recent past winners (2024) may compete and will be eligible for special prizes awarded by the jury panel.

Debut Competitive Division
Grades: 6-12
Who: Students currently enrolled in Key to Change, who are enrolled in group or private lessons or the COMBO program.
Performance Time Limit: A total of up to 10 minutes
Repertoire Requirement: Competitors must perform a major or minor scale and two contrasting pieces. Memorization is strongly encouraged for one piece performed, but not required.

Prizes:

1st place – $500 college scholarship, a yearlong tuition-free (beginning fall 2025) music scholarship for music lessons, a performance in a guest masterclass with a member of the Seattle Symphony, a set of high-quality strings, and a live performance on the radio on Unmute The Voices and additional opportunities to be in the local news and featured on Key to Change’s social media platform.
2nd place – a set of high-quality strings and an invitation to perform at select events sponsored by Key to Change. (Note: At the judges’ discretion, they may recommend a second place winner(s) to also appear on Northwest Focus Live and/or Unmute The Voices).
3rd place – a set of high-quality strings and an invitation to perform at select events sponsored by Key to Change.
Please note:
- Key to Change reserves the right to veto the judges’ decision and select other winners to make the radio appearances, in the event that the student winner(s) are not musically prepared or performance ready. The winner(s) will also forfeit their scholarship awards, radio and other performance appearances.
- Previous first place winners of the Jessie Montgomery Division are eligible if there has been a two year reprieve between winning the top prize. However, recent past winners (2024) may compete and will be eligible for special prizes awarded by the jury panel.

Non-Competitive Division
Grades: 6-12
Who: Any students who live, attend school and study their instrument in South King County. Students enrolled in Key to Change are also eligible to participate. Students may play a solo or bring up to three friends to play a duet, trio or quartet together. All participants in their “ensemble” must play the violin or viola. No other instruments are allowed. All participants must pay the enrollment fee.

Middle or high school students who are also enrolled in the MY Southeast Orchestra program sponsored by the Seattle Youth Symphony, Cleveland, Garfield and Franklin High Schools, or attend middle or high schools in the Auburn, Highline Federal Way, Kent, or Renton School Districts are also eligible.

Time limit to perform: A total of up to 5 minutes

Repertoire Requirement: Scales, etudes, short pieces, solos, chamber music or orchestra music is permitted. Students may perform with music. Students who are not enrolled in Key to Change may perform music without piano accompaniment or bring their own piano accompanist.

All students will receive a Certificate of Recognition and a Solo String Festival t-shirt.

Requirements

Participants must live, attend school, and study their instrument in South King County. All students studying at Key to Change are eligible to participate. Students who do not study with a private instructor, but meet the aforementioned requirements are eligible. Students studying with instructors who live or teach outside of South King County are not eligible to participate.
Participants must provide piano music if using a Key to Change piano accompanist.
Participants may compete on one instrument only.
Participants may compete in one division only, except for Young Artist Academy students, who may participate in both the concerto competition and Jessie Montgomery Division.
Participants must provide four copies of their music for the adjudicators. Music must be placed in a three-ring binder (copied double sided) and hole punched.
Participants must introduce their performance to the adjudicator and audience. Students should introduce themselves and their accompanist, name of school, title and composer of the ensemble (and, if appropriate, the movements being performed).
Participants will be cut off if the allotted time is exceeded.
Participants will receive written feedback from the adjudicator.
Participants must check in one hour prior to their performance.
The adjudicator’s decision is final and may not be appealed.
Winners are required to participate in the radio broadcast and select events scheduled by Key to Change. Failure to participate in such events will result in disqualification and loss of scholarship.

Schedule
A master schedule of student performances will be sent out one week before the festival begins.

Application
Applicants must complete and submit the registration form no later than Monday, April 27, 2025 (11:59pm). You must also complete the $25 application fee.

Masterclass Teachers

Hans Jørgen Jensen, cello

Hans Jørgen Jensen is professor of cello at the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University. From 1979 to 1987 he was professor of cello at the Moore’s School of Music at the University of Houston. During the summer, he is a faculty member at The Meadowmount School of Music and The Young Artist Program at the National Arts Center in Ottawa Canada under the direction of Pinchas Zukerman. He has been a guest professor at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, The Oberlin College Conservatory, The Eastman School of Music, The Academy of Music in Sydney, The Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen, the Tokyo College of Music and the Musashino Academy of Music in Japan, the Festival de Musica de Santa Catarina in Brazil, The Jerusalem Music Center, and the PyeongChang International festival and School in Korea.

Mr. Jensen has performed as a soloist in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan including solo appearances with the Danish Radio Orchestra, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the Copenhagen Symphony, and the Irish Radio Orchestra under the baton of conductors such as: Simon Rattle, Mistislav Rostropovich and Carlo Zecchi. He has given numerous workshops and master classes across the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, Brazil, Korea, Australia, and Israel.

Mr. Jensen was awarded the prestigious 2010 Artist Teacher Award from the American String Teachers Association (ASTA), as well as the Copenhagen Music Critics Prize, the Jacob Gades Prize, the Danish Ministry of Cultural Affairs Grant for Musicians, the Northwestern Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence award, and the U.S. Presidential Scholar Teacher Recognition Award by the U.S. Department of Education. He was named the outstanding studio teacher of the year by Illinois ASTA. He was also the winner of the Artist International Competition that resulted in three New York Recitals. E.C. Shirmer, Boston, published his transcription of the Galamian Scale System for Cello Volume I and II and Shar Products Company published his cello method book, Fun in Thumb Position. A new pedagogy book “CelloMind” was published in November 2017 by OvationPress.

Christian Howes, violin

Violinist, educator and composer, Christian Howes was voted #1 in the Downbeat Critics Poll (“Rising Stars/Violin”), named among the top three jazz violinists in the JazzTimes critics poll, and nominated for Violinist of the Year by the Jazz Journalist Association. He received the Residency Partner Award through Chamber Music America, earned a USArtists grant through the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, and was invited by the U.S. State department to teach and perform as a cultural ambassador twice, in Ukraine and Montenegro. His release on Resonance Records, “Southern Exposure” earned recognition in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Downbeat, Jazz Times, as well as a six-night run at Lincoln Center. His release, “American Spirit” was named among the Best Jazz Albums of the Year″ by the Huffington Post. Howes is the founder of “Creative Strings“, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a mission to expand music education through the creation of online curriculum, conferences, and visits to schools teaching improvisation, contemporary styles, and related subjects. He endorses Yamaha violins and D’Addario strings.

Judges

Lynn Chang

Professor of Violin – Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Boston University, Harvard University, MIT, and New England Conservatory

A native of Boston, Chang is director of the Hemenway Strings at the Boston Conservatory, where he also teaches. His former students now perform in such orchestras as the Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York.

Lynn Chang is a member of the Boston Chamber Music Society. He has also appeared at the Wolf Trap, Great Woods, Marlboro, and Tanglewood Music Festivals, and as soloist with orchestras in Miami, Salt Lake City, Oakland, Seattle, Honolulu, Beijing, Taipei, and Hong Kong. He has performed with members of the Juilliard, Tokyo, Cleveland, Vermeer, Muir, and Orion String Quartets.

Chang has collaborated with cellist Yo-Yo Ma on numerous occasions. Their performance of Leon Kirchner’s Tryptich has been recorded for Sony Classical. Their world premiere performance of Ivan Tcherepin’s Double Concerto with the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra received the Grawmeyer Award for Best New Composition in 1995. In 2004, he participated in Ma’s Silk Road Project residency at the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts. He also collaborated with Dawn Upshaw on her Grammy Award-winning CD, Girl with the Orange Lips.

Chang is married to pediatrician Dr. Lisa Wong. They make their home in Newton, Massachusetts with their two children, Jennifer and Christopher who also are violinists. Faculty at Boston University, Boston Conservatory, MIT

Dr. Tami Lee Hughes

Instructor of Violin – Spelman College

Critics rave violinist Tami Lee Hughes “rises to considerable technical challenges,” playing with a sound “reminiscent of Perlman.” A native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Tami began playing violin at the age of four. She grew up in a musical family and draws from her Creole roots, performing classical music infused with jazz, blues, gospel, and hip-hop. Since making her debut with the National Symphony Orchestra at the age of 16, Tami has extensively toured the United States, Europe, and Central America, championing music of African-American composers. Her solo album, Legacy: Violin Music of African-American Composers, was heralded as one of the top ten albums of 2011 by All Music Guide, garnering acclaim from audiences and critics alike. In 2016, Tami launched The Legacy Show, a live multimedia concert inspired by her debut album to great acclaim. Her work has been broadcasted on radio stations around the world and continues to serve as a significant artistic and cultural record of American music.

Additional credits in classical performance include appearances in Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center as a member of the acclaimed Sphinx Virtuosi Chamber Ensemble; appearances as section violinist in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Opera Orchestra, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra Augusta, and Charleston Symphony Orchestra among others; a live broadcast solo concert on Chicago’s WFMT radio station for the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series; and performances as a featured artist in the Ritz Chamber Players Concert Series. Classical recording credits include Ballade for Violin and Piano, a solo featured on Vocalise, a compact disc of music by composer Brian Nelson, and, Music for Piano and Chamber Orchestra, a Profil recording featuring performances by Ksenia Nosikova of works by Liszt, Mendelssohn, and Clement.

In addition to performing, Tami is an active teacher and advocate for music outreach. She has taught at Morehouse College, Spelman College, the University of Kansas, Marygrove College, Interlochen, and the Ann Arbor School for Performing Arts. She enjoys interacting with students of all ages, rendering concerts and serving as guest clinician at institutions across the country. Tami received a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Minnesota, and Master’s and Doctorate degrees from the University of Michigan. Teachers include Nancy Langham, Jana Burton, Sally O’Reilly, Camilla Wicks, and Paul Kantor.

Dr. Irina Muresanu

Professor of Violin – University of Maryland, College Park

Romanian-born violinist Irina Muresanu is equally in demand on both sides of the Atlantic, as she has appeared throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia and South Africa. Ms. Muresanu has firmly established herself as a successful recording artist, and her adventurous programming and thematic concepts define her as soloist and chamber musician.

A laureate and winner of top prizes in several prestigious international violin competitions including the Montreal International, Queen Elisabeth, UNISA International String, Washington International, and the Schadt String Competition, Muresanu achieved international acclaim early on. Muresanu’s awards also include the Presser Award, the Arthur Foote Award from the Harvard Musical Association, the Creative and Performing Arts Award from the University of Maryland, a prestigious New Music USA Grant, a Pro Musicis International Award.

Irina Muresanu is Associate Professor in the School of Music and Affiliate Faculty in the Institute for Advanced Computer Studies at the University of Maryland and has been on the faculties of Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and in the Harvard and MIT Music Departments. She holds a prestigious Artist Diploma degree and a Doctor in Musical Arts degree from the New England Conservatory, where she studied with the legendary French violinist Michèle Auclair. Muresanu plays an 1849 Giuseppe Rocca violin and an Étienne Pajeot bow.

FAQ's

Am I eligible to participate in the Solo String Festival?
- Participants must live, attend school, and study their instrument in South King County. All students regardless of home address studying at Key to Change are also eligible to participate. Students studying with lesson instructors outside of South King County are not eligible to participate.
What cities are included in South King County?
- Auburn, Black Diamond, Burien, Covington, Des Moines, Enumclaw, Federal Way, Kent, Maple Valley, Muckleshoot Reserve, Normandy Park, Renton, SeaTac, Skyway, Tukwila, and White Center.
What schools that students attend outside of South King County are eligible?
- Students who are also enrolled in the MY Southeast Orchestra program sponsored by the Seattle Youth Symphony, Cleveland and Franklin High Schools are also eligible.
Where will I go to perform?
- Students will report to the Artist Entrance at Benaroya Hall, which is located at 200 University Street, Seattle, WA 98101.
Are there any refunds if I pull out after the deadline?
- Following the deadline, no refunds will be issued.
Do I need to be present both days to be able to participate?
- No. Students will sign up for a specific time slot which will be on a first come, first serve basis. Students must arrive 1 hour prior to their performance time and are invited to stay as long as they would like either before or after to cheer on other students.
How does the judging work?
- Students will perform for four judges and receive live feedback immediately after their performance. Winners will be announced Saturday, May 10 at 5:30pm at the awards ceremony. Families as well as friends are encouraged to attend and support the students.
Does my music have to be memorized?
- One piece must be (or strongly encouraged) memorized if competing in the competitive divisions (see divisions for more information). Music does not need to be memorized if entering the non-competitive division.
What kinds of music qualify?
- Students in the competitive rounds must present two contrasting pieces (example: one fast piece and one slow piece) . Any piece (orchestral, chamber music, etc.) or scales is allowed for the non-competitive division.
Am I required to participate in a masterclass?
- Key to Change students are required to participate in at least one masterclass. Students who are not enrolled in Key to Change may participate in a masterclass, but are not required to.
How do I get to participate in the masterclasses/group classes?
- Students will be assigned to perform in masterclasses and group classes to work with professional guest artists who will coach them on their repertoire. All of the classes are included in the student’s application fee.
Who can participate in the non-competitive division?
- Any middle or high school student may participate for up to 5 minutes. Scales, etudes, short pieces, or orchestra music is permitted. Students may perform with sheet music.
Do I get the money immediately if I win?
- If a winner receives first place in the Jessie Montgomery Competitive, Debut Competitive, Key to Change will mail a check to the participant’s intended college or university. If the participant is not a senior at the time of winning the scholarship, Key to Change will reserve their scholarship funds and distribute it to the institution upon graduation. If the winner is from the Community Competitive Division, a check will be mailed to the winner and their respective school within seven business days of the Solo String Festival.