New York Youth Symphony Comes to Carnegie Hall With Sphinx Competition Winner Sterling Elliott

The New York Youth Symphony (NYYS) continues its 2019-2020 season with The McCrindle Concert, presented by the NYYS Orchestra on Sunday, March 1, 2020 at 2pm, at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage, led by Music Director Michael Repper. The concert features 2019 Senior Division Sphinx Competition winner and cellist Sterling Elliott performing Dvořák's Cello Concerto in B Minor as well as the world premiere of First Music commission The Sycamore and the Oak by composer Tanner Porter, and Respighi's Pines of Rome.

Porter's piece is co-commissioned by the Interlochen Arts Academy, and was written in collaboration with students at the KIPP Academy Middle School in the Bronx. It is part of the NYYS's First Music commissioning program, which has been widely acknowledged for the past 37 years as one of the leading forces in the United States for bringing the work of gifted young composers to public attention. The NYYS has commissioned over 160 original works for orchestra, chamber music, and jazz through First Music since 1984.

The Sycamore and the Oak is inspired by a story of two trees that have grown near each other for many years, a sycamore and an oak. Porter writes of the process of writing the work, "In a lesson on musical storytelling, I wrote three themes for string quartet (the material for this piece). Each segment represented some potential facet of the tree's growth and lives. The students were asked to order the segments in a way they felt told the story they liked best, and to express what extra-musical associations caused them to create this narrative. The three parts of this orchestral piece are ordered as the students preferred."

Music Director Michael Repper says, "In addition to performing beloved standard repertoire by Dvořák and Respighi, the New York Youth Symphony reaffirms its unparalleled commitment to new music at this concert, premiering a thrilling tone poem by Tanner Porter, who is lauded for her expansive, lyrical writing. This concert showcases an extremely wide range of orchestral color, and will be a treat for the audience. With exceptional talent and energy, the New York Youth Symphony is one of the most special ensembles in the country. I am proud to share the stage with such gifted young musicians."

Tanner Porter is a composer-performer, songwriter and visual artist from California. In her "original art songs that are by turns seductive and confessional" (Steve Smith, The New Yorker), Porter's passion for storytelling manifests in her setting of original poetry; her love for the cross-mingling of art forms often brings her to incorporate her own artwork into scores and performances. Her work has been performed on such programs as New Music Detroit's Strange Beautiful Music 9, by Miami-based chamber orchestra Nu Deco Ensemble with conductor Jacomo Bairos, at the 2018 New Music Gathering, and at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall; recent orchestral works have been performed by the Albany Symphony with conductor David Alan Miller (commissioned for the 2019 American Music Festival and written in collaboration with librettist Vanessa Moody), by the Mannes American Composers ensemble with conductor Michael Repper, and by the Yale Philarmonia with conductor Julian Pellicano. Porter was one of 14 composers commissioned for the 2020 opera Magdalene, which premiered on the Prototype Festival at the HERE Arts Center, featuring Danielle Birrittella and Ariana Daub with direction by Zoe Aja Moore. Porter is a recent recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Charles Ives Scholarship. She has attended the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music, Avaloch Farm Music Institute, and Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and is attending the Aspen Music Festival this season. Her most recent album, The Summer Sinks, can be heard on all streaming platforms. Porter received a Bachelors in Music Composition from the University of Michigan's School of Music, Theatre and Dance, where she studied with Evan Chambers, Kristin Kuster, and Michael Daugherty. She received her Masters in Music Composition from the Yale School of Music, where she studied with Hannah Lash, Christopher Theofanidis, Aaron Jay Kernis and David Lang.

Cellist Sterling Elliott has soloed with the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, the South Bend Symphony Orchestra, the New World Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, and many more as well as a performance at the 2019 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. In 2015 and 2016, Elliott performed a 7-week national tour with the Sphinx Virtuosi, and in 2018 was a featured soloist on tour including a performance at Carnegie Hall. He began his cello studies at the age of three and made his solo debut at the age of seven when he became the first-place Junior Division winner of the PYO Concerto Competition. Other notable accomplishments include 1st place in 2019 National Sphinx Competition Senior Division, 2019 Camerata Artists International Competition, grand prize in the First Presbyterian Young Artist Competition, 1st place in the 2014 Sphinx Competition, 2014 Richmond Symphony Concerto Competition, and more. Sterling Elliott has enjoyed the honor of performing for cellist Yo-Yo Ma and also performing alongside recording artist Jennifer Hudson. He currently studies with Joel Krosnick at the Juilliard School working toward an undergraduate degree in cello performance where he is a proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship.

Michael Repper is an emerging conductor of classical music, jazz, pops, and musical theater. A graduate of Stanford University, he recently completed his doctoral residency at the Peabody Conservatory of Music as a student of Gustav Meier and his longtime mentor, Marin Alsop. Repper was the Peabody Institute-Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Conducting Fellow for two seasons, and continues to work with the Peabody Institute ensembles. He holds leadership positions in several music organizations in the Baltimore area. He is currently Music Director of both the Northern Neck Orchestra and Baltimore Basilica, Assistant Conductor of the Concert Artists of Baltimore, and New Music Consultant for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Michael Repper's international performances include a recent debut with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra in Brazil, masterclasses with the Artes Nazionale Orchestra in Florence, Italy, and performances in Australia.

Up Next for the NYYS Orchestra:

The 2019-2020 NYYS Orchestra season concludes on Sunday, May 24, 2020 at 2 pm, with The Spring Concert, featuring pianist Michelle Cann making her Carnegie Hall debut in the first performance of Florence Price's Piano Concerto in One Movement at Carnegie Hall. The program also includes the world premiere of First Music commission Obliviana by Patrick O' Malley and Mahler's 1st Symphony, the "Titan." Michelle Cann is appearing as part of the Roy and Shirley Durst Debut Artist Series, now in its 35th year.

Tickets & Information: www.nyys.org/events