If Ed McMahon were to resurrect Star Search, he should start at the annual American String Teachers Association conference, held this year at the Marriott Hotel inside Detroit’s Renaissance Center. There’s no question that the stardust glittered at that well-attended event. Highlights included the third biennial Alternative Styles Awards and gala concert on March 10 with a performance by the Turtle Island Quartet.

This year’s winners of the Alternative Styles Competition showed astounding talent, stage presence, and technical wizardry. The final concert showcased several genres of music outside of the Western classical tradition, including jazz, Irish and Scottish fiddling, and even rock. Outshining the music was the camaraderie displayed between the many young performers who demonstrated charm, intellect, and professionalism.

Nineteen-year-old Olivia Smiley, a first-year student at Butler University in Indianapolis who won in the Established Tradition category in the competition’s senior division, is among this year’s competition winners. Smiley is a two-time Ohio state fiddle champ and a two-time winner at the Indiana state championships. A classically trained player, she launched her music career by accident when she walked into a bluegrass jam session while at camp.

Mari Black, 20, a fiddler from Cambridge, Massachusetts, won for Musicianship in the senior division, performing an original composition. In 2005, she received an award in the junior division for Best Groove.

Jason Annick won in the senior-division Improvisation category, pulling his dad on stage to play along on guitar. Anick is a student at the Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford and is earning dual degrees in performance and engineering, specifically acoustical engineering. “It’s something I’m interested in doing as a day job for a while so I can get some money until something comes up,” he said.

Mike Barnett, 17, of Longmeadow, Massachusetts, took top honors in the Musicianship category for the junior division. He started playing classical music at the age of five. Originally from Nashville, Barnett began fiddle lessons at age ten. He said his past enrollment at the Mark O’Connor Tennessee-based fiddle camp has had a significant impact on his playing. Another inspiration for Barnett has been 14-year-old Alex Hargreaves of Corvallis, Oregon, who also won this year in the junior division in the Improvisation category. Hargreaves has gigged at the Wintergrass Festival near Seattle and the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco. In 2005, the teen fiddler won the use for one year of the Daniel Pearl Memorial Violin at the Mark O’Connor String Conference in San Diego. The instrument is presented to fiddlers who show exceptional merit.