Day: November 24, 2022

*When I met 12- Year old Aurelia “Ellie” on a Zoom call last month, she first appeared like any other normal pre-teen. She gave me a tour of her bedroom, which contains more art supplies than a “Michael’s”, introduced me to her pet Autumn, a crested gecko, and called me “bruh” within the first five minutes.*

I was following up with Ellie since taking notice of her last February when she gave a tremendous concert in Lausanne, Switzerland, where the young cellist received nine curtain calls after a performance of Haydn’s C Major Cello Concerto with the Amati Philharmonic.

Ellie told me that immediately following that success, she was thrilled to dive into New York City Ballet’s run of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. She says the feeling of being on the Lincoln Center stage at the Koch Theater is like no other – pure thrill – and that she loves dancing as much as she does playing the cello.

Over the summer, Ellie attended the prestigious Meadowmount School of Music with her teacher of several years, Han Jørgen Jensen. She is currently attending the Juilliard School’s preeminent Pre-College Division under the tutelage of concert artist, Natasha Brofsky. She is small in stature but has an overwhelmingly big personality. She plays a 3/4 size cello now, made for her by world-renowned luthier, Frank Ravatin, in Vannes, France. She said her cello helps her create “her sound” and that is a very specific sound.

Every Saturday, Ellie hops out of bed at 7:30 and packs for her day. She heads to School of American Ballet first where takes an intense technique class. At 11:00, she heads next door to The Juilliard School, with “Frankie” the cello on her back and pointe shoes dangling from her ballet bag. She goes to orchestra, theory, ear training, studio performance / technique class, and her favorite hour of the week : chamber music. She is in a trio with two other exceptional young musicians, Ivy Hahn, violin and Ava Gao, piano, who are studying Beethoven right now. Her favorite teacher is violinist Laura Goldberg, who seems to “get” Ellie and her love of this art.

In early October, her first album was released on Spotify, called “From Bach to Summerland”. She performs Bach, Summerland by William Grant Still, and the Elgar Concerto. In a review by Huntley Dent, he writes, “If you wonder how such a young performer might fare in the first two movements of the Elgar Cello Concerto, Faidley-Solars puts on her Jacqueline du Pré cap for a passionately felt introduction to the first movement. She has excellent intonation (small hands prove no hindrance), with barely a slip in the double stops. She renders the main theme with ardent emotion and rises to the highest register with fearless assurance. In the second movement she grabs the limelight with her bold pizzicatos and manages the tempo changes without the slightest hesitation. She has real presence. She is it.”

Right now, Ellie is very excited to be a “Candy Cane” in the New York City Ballet’s Nutcracker, especially after not being able to perform for two heartbreaking years due to the pandemic. She will level out at the end of this year. She loves being on stage with the company members and has many ballet heroes, including Tiler Peck, Ashley Laracey, and Mira Nadon. She also can’t wait to “dance Candy Cane with Daniel Ulbricht!”

When asked about cello and ballet, two extremely demanding art forms, seemingly competing for time in her busy little life, she blows off the question and says, “I love them both! That’s my life! Who cares about math anyway?” (Mom was quick to interrupt the Zoom call and let me know that SHE cares about Math and Ellie is doing very well in Honor’s Algebra 1). Ellie tells me that she enjoys the same things about Juilliard and School of American Ballet: the strict curriculum, the serious teachers, the focused students.

She is definitely a pre-teen, but an unusual one. Mom, Elizabeth Faidley, might be exhausted by keeping up with this ball of fire, but willing to follow these pointe shoes wherever they leap. After speaking with Ellie today, I would venture to predict that they will leap very high.

For more info follow her on Instagram @elliefaidley