Samuel Sykes joined the NCS cello section in 2026, having previously held an acting position in the 204/2025 season. He 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 12. He was named a National YoungArts Winner and has also won first prize in several competitions across the country. He was a prize winner in the inaugural Hill Competition and performed as a soloist with the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra in New York. He is also a frequent substitute with the Houston Symphony and was a fellowship recipient at the Aspen Music Festival for multiple summers.
Sykes graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Melissa Kraut, and a master’s degree with Brinton Averil Smith at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. He has also been mentored by cellists Christopher French, Zuill Bailey, Hans Jørgen Jensen, Darrett Adkins, and Eric Kim. He plays on a cello made in 1694 by Carlo Giuseppe Testore which is generously on loan from Curtis Bryant Fine Cellos.
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. 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.
