SAMUEL SYKES

Samuel Sykes began studying the cello at age three at the Northeast Iowa School of Music and made his concerto debut with the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra at age twelve. He was named a National YoungArts Winner and has also won first prize in several competitions across the country. He was recently a prize winner in the inaugural Hill Concerto Competition and performed as a soloist with the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra in New York. Previously a member of the Canton Symphony Orchestra, he is a substitute with the Houston Symphony and has been a fellowship recipient at the Aspen Music Festival for the last two summers.

Sykes graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Dr. Melissa Kraut, and has completed the first year of a master’s degree with Brinton Averil Smith at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. He has also worked with cellists such as Zuill Bailey, Peter J. Thomas, Kevin Price-Brenner, Hans Jørgen Jensen, Darrett Adkins, and Eric Kim. His cello is generously on loan from the Maestro Foundation.

Sykes is also passionate about arranging music for cello ensembles. His version of Poulenc’s Les chemins de l’amour for cello quintet premiered in concert in Graz, Austria, along with his arrangements of Bach’s Cello Suite No. 3 in C Major for cello trio and Schumann’s Cello Concerto for cello sextet. He has been commissioned to write many other cello ensemble arrangements for concert programs around the country. Last year, he also wrote and performed in his cello sextet version of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto—the first and only arrangement to have the solo part switch between players. Additionally, the cellists of the Houston Symphony performed his arrangement of Dvořák’s Songs My Mother Taught Me in concert with soloist Brinton Averil Smith as an encore.