Samuel Sykes, creator of Allegro Press, 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 Competition and performed Dvorak’s Cello Concerto in B minor (Op. 104) 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 joined the section of the North Carolina Symphony in 2024. Samuel has been a fellowship recipient at the Aspen Music Festival for 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 has participated in masterclasses with the Juilliard String Quartet, Calidore String Quartet, and the Cavani Quartet and was previously a member of the Advanced Piano Trio Program at CIM where he collaborated with Sharon Robinson, Jaime Laredo, Daniel Shapiro, Jessica Lee, Philip Setzer, Steve Rose, and other esteemed musicians.

Samuel is passionate about arranging music for cello ensembles as well as creating practice/teaching resources. His arrangement of Poulenc’s Les Chemins de l’amour for cello quintet premiered in concert this past summer 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 in A minor for cello sextet. Additionally, he wrote and performed his cello quartet arrangement of West Side Story, Bach’s Chaconne in D minor for cello duet, and Chopin’s Nocturne Op. 9, No. 2 on concert programs in Ohio. 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 (video here).