by Christina Clark
IU South Bend is hosting the 22nd Hartman Stickley Piano Competition Winners’ Recital on Sunday, March 11, in the Louise E. Addicott and Yatish J. Joshi Performance Hall at 2:30 pm. Area piano students ranging from 8 to 18 years of age competed on March 2 for a chance to be featured in the recital.
There are six divisions in which piano students are able to demonstrate their talents. The pre-college competition and festival are sponsored by the South Bend Area Music Teachers Association (SBAMTA) as well as the Elnora Hartman Stickley Scholarship Fund.
The competition was established in 1995. The event has served to “honor the memory of Elnora Hartman Stickley, to reward talented pianists in the Michiana area, and to provide an excellent venue for young pianists to strengthen their performance skills, while gaining constructive feedback from highly qualified judges,” according to the SBAMTA website.
New this year in the competition, is a full-tuition, four-year scholarship for in-state students in the Division VI category, says Jennifer Muñiz, collegiate liaison for the Stickley competition planning committee and assistant professor of music at IU South Bend.
Of the scholarship, Muñiz says it is to “try to attract the best students in the area.”
The competition has attracted 89 participants from across the area from Elkhart, Kosciusko, LaPorte, St. Joseph, Berrien, and Cassopolis counties, making this the main piano competition for the Michiana area for young performers.
“It’s a really great relationship between the South Bend music teachers and IU South Bend, opening up the lines of communication,” Muñiz says. “The organizations are beneficial to each other. We have a lot to offer them and they have a lot to offer us.”
For more information about SBAMTA, please visit SBAMTA.org, and for more information about the Stickley Competition Winner’s Recital please visit arts.iusb.edu.
