These concerts are Sterling Elliott's debut with the North Carolina Symphony.

Cellist Sterling Elliott is a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and the winner of the Senior Division of the 2019 National Sphinx Competition. He has appeared with The Philadelphia Orchestra and The Cleveland Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Boston, Detroit, and Dallas symphony orchestras, among others.

The 2022/23 season includes debuts with the Colorado Symphony and the symphony orchestras of Cincinnati and Ft. Worth, with return appearances including the Buffalo Philharmonic. In October of last year, Elliott participated in the Caramoor Music Festival’s Evnin Rising Stars series. He debuted last summer at the Aspen Music Festival and has appeared previously at Music@Menlo, ChamberFest Cleveland, ChamberFest West in Calgary, Music from Angel Fire, and the La Jolla Music Society.

After learning to play the cello at the age of three under the direction of Suzuki cello teacher Susan Hines, Elliott made his concerto debut at the age of seven by winning the Junior Division of the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition, and later the Richmond Symphony Concerto Competition and the Bay Youth Orchestras of Virginia Concerto Competition.

Elliott has a long history with the Sphinx Organization where he first received second place in the 2013 National Sphinx Competition Junior Division, then won the 2014 Junior Division. In 2016 he received the Organization’s Isaac Stern Award, and he toured with the Sphinx Virtuosi in 2018 before winning in 2019.

In 2019, Elliott was the first recipient of The National Arts Club’s Herman and Mary Neuman Music Scholarship Award. In 2022, he participated in the Performance Today Young Artist Residency, which featured educational events, interviews, and a feature on the nationally syndicated radio program.

Elliott is currently a Kovner Fellow at The Juilliard School, where he is pursuing his master’s degree in music. He completed his undergraduate degree in cello performance at Juilliard in 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.