Aurelia Faidley-Solars, Cello

Aurelia Faidley-Solars is a 16-year old American cellist who has garnered international attention as a young concert artist.  Aurelia currently studies at the Juilliard School of Music with Zvi Plesser and is the recipient of The Jacobs Scholarship of Music. She is also a 2023-2024 From the Top Fellow and the youngest Beare’s International Artist.  In October, 2024, Aurelia opened for Ray Chen at The Colburn School in Los Angeles, performing with renowned pianist Julio Elizalde. Aurelia is the youngest winner of the 2025 Young Arts Competition and won in 2026 as well. In the fall of 2025, Aurelia toured with The Sofia Philharmonic through five cities in Bulgaria and gave solo recitals in Barcelona, Budapest, Mallorca, Amsterdam, and Malta. In July, 2026, Aurelia will give her full debut recital at Carnegie Hall with works by Dvorak, Bach, Ligeti, Schubert, and Piatti.

Aurelia made her orchestra debut at age ten 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 recently performed with the London Concert Sinfonia, the London Young Players Consortium, and the State Orchestra of Hamburg in Germany.  Other orchestral performances include 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, the Northeastern Sinfonietta in Boston, and the NY Chamber Players at Carnegie Hall. Already a champion for new music, Aurelia gave the world premiere of Canzoni Burlesche, a piece for Cello and Piano by Italian composer, Alessandro Spazzoli at Paul Hall in the Juilliard School in April, 2024 and recently performed Carlos Simon’s “Lickety Split” for cello and piano.  

Aurelia is a prizewinner in numerous competitions, including the Fox Valley Concerto Competition in Chicago, the Ambler Symphony Concerto Competition in Philadelphia, the Hill Concerto Competition in NYC, the Sound Symphony Concerto Competition in New York, the Vienna International Music Competition, the CelloWorld Concerto Competition in Vienna, the Petrichor Competition, Birmingham International Competition in London, the first place winner of the Nouvelles Étoiles in Paris, and first place in ArsClassical in Rome. She 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.

Besides Mr. Plesser, her other major influences are her long-time teachers and mentors, Hans Jorgen Jensen and John Henry Crawford. She has studied with or appeared in masterclasses with Laurence Lesser, Richard Aaron, Frans Helmerson, 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.   Aurelia has attended Morningside Music Bridge, Encore Music Institute,  The Meadowmount School of Music, and Music@Menlo.