Cellist Sterling Elliott will join the Carmel Symphony Orchestra for its last Masterworks performance of the season, performing Saint-Saens Concerto No. 1 at The Palladium April 22.
The Carmel Symphony Orchestra, which has been around for almost 50 years, is always comprised of 60 to 75 classically trained musicians primarily from the Carmel, Indianapolis and Fishers areas, as well as musicians from around the U.S. The orchestra hosts five Masterworks concerts each year with guest musicians and singers, in addition to its Pop series, which features music styles ranging from Broadway to jazz to Motown, said Janna Hymes, artistic director of the Carmel Symphony Orchestra.
“We’re not only expanding our season but also the quality. I think it’s getting better all the time,” Hymes said. “My goal is just to have people in the community know that they have an orchestra in their town that is really top notch at their disposal, and we play all kinds of music.”
The final Masterworks concert of the 2022-23 season will feature guest cellist Sterling Elliott performing French composer Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Cello Concerto I,” and Hymes said she could not be more excited to introduce the Camel community to such a talented, young musician.
“The thing about Sterling that’s so incredible is not only is he a great musician, but he is so well-rounded, so respectful, so kind and knowledgeable,” Hymes said. “People really gravitate towards him because I think he’s really got a star quality about him. He’s an excellent musician, and I can’t wait for a Carmel audience to get to know him and fall in love with him right away.”
The 23-year-old musician, who hails from a family of musicians in Newport News, Virginia, said he began playing the cello as early as three years old — though his mother bought him the cello while she was still pregnant with him, he said. Elliott’s mother is also violinist and he said she wanted to share her love for music with her children — and create her own string quartet.
In addition to touring and playing with orchestras around the country, Elliott said he is currently working on his master’s at The Juilliard School and plans to pursue an Arts Diploma following graduation this spring.
Although this is not Elliott’s first time playing under the direction of Hymes, this is his first time joining the CSO. He said it is always refreshing to play a piece so near and dear to him with a new orchestra.
“It’s always a pleasure to open up that interpretation — not only to different conductors or returning to the same conductor — but inviting musicians such as the Carmel Symphony Orchestra to join you in what will be a new experience and a new interpretation,” Elliott said. “I’m really excited to play the very first note and start that organic experience.
The concerto, which is performed in three movements, is unique as it does not include pauses before each movement and has an abnormal non-existent introduction, Elliott said.
However, he said listeners have always regarded Saint-Saens Cello Concerto No. 1 as “a star concerto,” especially when it was first written and performed. The cello concerto was one of Saint-Saens’ first works to gain traction, and Elliott said contemporary critics praised the piece for being distinctive from his previous works.
That remains true today, as Elliott said many musicians learn and fall in love with the concerto at a young age because of its standard techniques, playing styles, and “almost magical” seamless transitions.
“It’s a little bit radical in that while it’s in three movements, it’s one continuous work,” Elliott said. “It occurs throughout, even within the movements, this idea that there is no flipping to the next chapter. When you enter a new emotion or introduce a new character, it just really quickly melts into very fast and traditional; it’s almost magical.”
Hymes said Saint-Saens was a child prodigy, and his cello concerto was written as a sort of dialogue between the orchestra and the cello. Elliott said the piece will feel like going on a journey to another world in the first and second movements, then coming full circle in the third. It’s an emotional concerto filled with feelings of defiance, strength and romance.
Masterworks 5 will also include Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, and the world premiere of In Rowan Oak: a piece written by living composer Dr. John Berners, a professor of music at the University of Indianapolis. Hymes said the piece is a tribute to American author William Faulkner, whose home in Mississippi is named Rowan Oak.
“This is a really cool piece; it’s quite difficult for the orchestra,” Hymes said. “But it has sort of a — he calls it a Southern Gothic style — and I really love that. We’re gonna come out on stage and talk about it, and then we’re going to perform it, and then we go into the Saint-Saens, and I love the juxtaposition of those two pieces together.”
Masterworks 5 takes place April 22 at 7:30 p.m. at The Palladium in Carmel, 1 Carter Green. Tickets start at $10 and can be purchased at thecenterpresents.org. For information on the Carmel Symphony Orchestra’s upcoming season, visit carmelsymphony.org.
This story has been updated to reflect the correct spelling of Janna Hymes. We apologize for the error. The Recorder makes every attempt to correct its mistakes.
Contact staff writer Chloe McGowan at 317-762-7848 or chloegm@indyrecorder.com. Follow her on Twitter @chloe_mcgowanxx.
