Samuel Sykes is the creator of Allegro Press and currently a senior at the Cleveland Institute of Music completing his Bachelor’s degree. He began studying the cello at age three with Karen Geyer at the Northeast Iowa School of Music and made his concerto debut at age twelve. He then continued his studies with Kevin Price Brenner and Peter Thomas, and attended the Interlochen Arts Academy from 2017-2019. Samuel attended the Meadowmount School of Music over the summers of 2018-2019 and the Sitka International Cello Seminar in 2020-2021. This past summer, he performed with the AIMS Festival Orchestra in Graz, Austria.

Sykes has participated in masterclasses with the Juilliard String Quartet, Calidore String Quartet, and the Cavani Quartet and is currently a member of the Advanced Piano Trio Program at CIM where he has performed for Jaime Laredo, Daniel Shapiro, Jessica Lee, Philip Setzer, and other esteemed musicians. Some of his leading mentors include Hans Jørgen Jensen, Sharon Robinson, Zuill Bailey, and Dr. Melissa Kraut. In 2019, he was a National YoungArts Winner for Classical Music and performed at the winner’s concert in New York City. Recent competitions include first prize in the 2021 Tennessee Cello Competition, second in the 2021 Schubert Club Scholarship Competition, second in the 2022 Darius Milhaud Competition, and first in the 2023 Hill Competition where he will solo with orchestra in New York. Samuel is also a section member of the Canton Symphony Orchestra. He is currently under the tutelage of Dr. Melissa Kraut at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

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 recently 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.