NSO: Vasily Petrenko conducts Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony | Sterling Elliott plays Saint-Saëns

• Sterling Elliott, cello
• Vasily Petrenko, conductor

Vasily Petrenko, whose Manfred performances have garnered international acclaim and earned him a place on numerous "Best Recordings" lists, captures the torment and colorful beauty of Tchaikovsky's four-movement symphony inspired by Lord Byron’s poem.

Hailed for his stellar stage presence and joyous musicianship, 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and National Sphinx Competition winner Sterling Elliott performs Saint-Saëns' First Cello Concerto—an impassioned departure from the standard concerto form.

Runs Feb. 20-23.

About National Symphony Orchestra

https://www.kennedy-center.org/nso/home/

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.

About Vasily Petrenko, conductor

Vasily Petrenko is Music Director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he took on in 2021, becoming Conductor Laureate of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra following his hugely acclaimed fifteen-year tenure as their Chief Conductor from 2006-2021. He is the Associate Conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, and has also served as Chief Conductor of the European Union Youth Orchestra (2015-2024), Chief Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra (2013-2020), and Principal Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (2009–2013). He stood down as Artistic Director of the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia 'Evgeny Svetlanov' in 2021 having been their Principal Guest Conductor from 2016 and Artistic Director from 2020.