Aurelia Faidley-Solars, cello

Meet Aurelia

Aurelia performs on Show 441.

Aurelia Faidley-Solars (cello), 13, hails from New York, New York and has garnered international attention as a young concert artist.  Aurelia currently studies at the Juilliard School of Music and is the recipient of The Jacobs Scholarship of Music.  She is a very proud member of the Beare’s International Violin Society.

Aurelia made her orchestral debut with the Amati Orchestra in Lausanne, Switzerland, receiving nine curtain calls for her performance of Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C Major.  She has also performed with the New Hampshire Philharmonic, the Fox Valley Symphony in Chicago, the Ashland Symphony Orchestra in Ohio, the Sempre Musick Symphony in Boston, the Metropolitan Symphony of New York, the Montgomery Symphony in Ohio, the NJ Virtuosi Sinfonietta in New Jersey, the SEEN Orchestra in Chicago, and the Manhattan Sinfonietta.  As a soloist, Aurelia has appeared in Prague, Vienna, Budapest, and London.

Aurelia is the youngest prizewinner in the history of The Ronald Sachs International Competition, as well as the three-time New Eastern regionals winner for the Music Teachers’ National Association.  She was also awarded the prestigious Aaron Rosand Memorial Prize and is the 2023 Menges Scholarship recipient.  Aurelia is the youngest finalist in the history for the Artist Presentation Society and was the only student featured in a solo performance celebrating the 130th Anniversary of the New World Symphony, a joint project between the United States and The Czech Republic. Aurelia was the 2023 soloist chosen for the “Young Artists Performers” series in South Carolina, and has toured throughout the northeastern and southeastern United States.

Aurelia currently studies with Fred Sherry.  Her major pedagogical influences include Diego Garcia, her very first teacher, and Hans Jorgen Jensen, her long-time teacher and mentor.  She has studied with or appeared in masterclasses with Laurence Lesser, Richard Aaron, Darrett Adkins, Brannon Cho, Phillipe Muller, David Finckel, Ralph Kirschbaum, Amit Peled, Stephen Doane, Rosemary Elliot, Peter Stumpf, Jean-Michel Fonteneau, Clive Greensmith, Matt Haimovitz, Zvi Plesser, Tomasz Strahl, Andres Diaz, Lluis Claret, and Tao Ni, and Pablo Ferrandez.  Other major influences include John-Henry Crawford and Zlatomir Fung.   In the summer of 2023, Aurelia attended Morningside Music Bridge and in 2022, she attended the Meadowmount School of Music.

Besides cello, Aurelia is a dedicated ballet dancer, studying in the Pre-Professional division at the School of American Ballet.  She has performed featured roles in the New York City Ballet’s “The Nutcracker” and “A Midsummer’s Night Dream”.  In 2023, she attended the Royal Ballet School’s Summer Intensive Program in London.  She loves art of all kinds, singing, and animals.  In 2023, Aurelia became a Congressional Award winner for visual arts.  She owns a 2- year old crested gecko named “Autumn”.