Stella B. Talcott, 16, is from Los Altos, California. She began playing the piano when she was five and a half years old. Ms. Era Lifschitz became her teacher two and a half years ago. Stella adores music and has played piano regularly in school orchestras and bands, as well as in recitals. In May 2025, she was named a third-place winner (Intermediate Category, Piano & Strings) in the American Protégé International competition and performed at Carnegie Hall. She is an inducted member of the International Thespian Society and has performed in a range of plays and musicals, including Marian, or the True Tale of Robin Hood, Pippin, Peter/Wendy, Once Upon a Mattress, Anatomy of Gray, and Mamma Mia!. She was the sole recipient of the legacy robe for her role as Wendy in her school’s production of Peter/Wendy in November 2024.
Watch Stella Barbara Talcott perform Cinq Morceaux de fantaisie, op. 3 no. 1: Elégie in E-flat minor by Sergei Rachmaninoff for the 2026 International Piano Competition as part of the Charleston International Music Competition.