Thursday, May 1, 2025 @ 7:00pm – 9:00pm (EDT)
Alice Tully Hall, New York, NY, United States

Over two decades, CMS Founding Artistic Director Charles Wadsworth expanded the awareness of chamber music at Lincoln Center and beyond. CMS pays tribute to its founder with a program crafted in Wadsworth's signature style, featuring a super-star vocal quartet with pianist Ken Noda and current CMS Co-Artistic Director Wu Han in Schumann's Spanische Liederspiel.

Please note, the Spring Gala performance does not include an intermission.

For the May 1 Spring Gala Performance: For dinner and concert tickets, please call (212) 875-5216. Standard/Rear seating available only for subscriptions. For add-on prime seating, please call (212) 875-5788. 

About Sterling Elliott, cello

Cellist Sterling Elliott​ is a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and the winner of the Senior Division of the 2019 National Sphinx Competition.

Sterling has enjoyed a simple and humble musical journey. As the youngest of 3 siblings, he did not want to play the cello but the violin like his older brother and sister. After a bit of encouragement, he completed The Elliott Family String Quartet by learning to play the cello at the age of three under the direction of Suzuki Cello teacher Susan Hines. He went on to make his concerto debut at the age of 7 by winning the Junior Division of the PYO Concerto Competition, and later the 2014 Richmond Symphony Concerto Competition, the Bay Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition. Sterling has a long history with the Sphinx Organization, where he first received 2nd place in the 2013 National Sphinx Competition Junior Division, then won the 2014 Junior Division. In 2016 he received the Isaac Stern Award by the Sphinx Organization and toured with the Sphinx Virtuosi in 2018 before winning in 2019.

He is a two-time alum of NPR's From the Top where he was a recipient of a scholarship from The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and performed several concerts in Switzerland at the 2019 World Economic Forum. He is a Young Strings of America ambassador for SHAR Strings. In 2019, he was the first recipient of The National Arts Club's Herman and Mary Neuman Music Scholarship Award.

Sterling Elliott is currently a Kovner Fellow at The Juilliard School where he is pursuing his Masters of Music degree studying with Joel Krosnick and Clara Kim. He completed his undergraduate degree in cello performance at Juilliard in May 2021. He currently performs on a 1741 Gennaro Gagliano cello on loan through the Robert F. Smith Fine String Patron Program, in partnership with the Sphinx Organization.

https://sterlingelliott.com/

About Nina Bernat, double bass

Nina Bernat is emerging as one of the world's foremost exponents of the double bass as solo instrument and is the recipient of the 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant and winner of the 2023 CAG Elmaleh Competition. She enjoys a versatile career as an artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, and Music@Menlo, and currently serves as the double bass faculty at Stony Brook University.

The daughter of Korean and Polish parents, Ms. Bernat began her studies with her father, double bassist Mark Bernat, and performs on a rare and sonorous early-18th century bass, handed down from him and attributed to Guadagnini.

https://www.ninabernat.com/