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Cape Symphony\u2019s \u201cA New Era\u201d concert<\/a> features an 11-year-old child prodigy on cello and “Star Wars” composer John Williams<\/a>\u2019 rendition of \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner\u201d in an E Flat key that only specialized sopranos can easily sing.<\/p>\n This weekend\u2019s concert, with performances at 4 p.m. Sept. 20 and 3 p.m. Sept. 21, also features guest conductor David Charles Abell. His career covers a wide range, from reconciling musical scores for composer Leonard Bernstein to leading BBC TV productions on the 10th and 25th anniversaries of \u201cLes Miserables\u201d in London\u2019s West End.<\/p>\n Abell, who now lives in Provincetown, started his own far-reaching career singing as a 13-year-old in Bernstein\u2019s 1971 tribute to the assassinated President John F. Kennedy.<\/p>\n \u201cI was never a child prodigy,\u201d Abell said, in a tone that suggests he couldn\u2019t think of anything farther from the truth, \u201cbut my husband (Seann Alderking) was. We\u2019ve talked about it many times.\u201d<\/p>\n That perspective may be helpful when Abell leads Cape Symphony\u2019s musicians in the season opener masterpiece concert,\u00a0 \u201cA New Era.” Sofia Hernandez-Williams, 11, will perform \u201cCello Concerto No. 1 in A Minor\u201d by Camille Saint-Sa\u00ebns.<\/p>\n \u201cShe is extraordinary. The technical demands of Saint-Sa\u00ebns\u2019 romantic piece are extraordinary. I\u2019m looking forward very much to meeting her,\u201d Abell said.<\/p>\n A\u00a0member of the Repertory Orchestra at Boston Youth Symphonies and principal cellist of the Joy of Music Youth Orchestra, Hernandez-Williams made her concert debut in 2024, performing Haydn\u2019s \u201cC Major Cello Concerto\u201d with Worcester\u2019s Seven Hills Symphony. She played the concerto again with the Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra. In 2025, she performed the final movement of Haydn\u2019s Cello Concerto in C as a soloist in the Musical Superheroes concert of the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra in Newton.<\/p>\n \u201cShe seems very professional already at the age of 11,\u201d Abell said, adding that the most helpful thing he can do as a conductor is treat her as any other professional musician. \u201cAt any age, a musician wants to play their instrument well.\u201d<\/p>\n Abell has worked with a broad range of artists, including Bryn Terfel, Diana Damrau, Judi Dench, Idina Menzel and Josh Groban. Abell is an internationally renowned conductor of classical music, opera, film and musical theater productions, both in Philadelphia near where he grew up and in London, where he lived and worked for 20 years.<\/p>\n Working with his mentor, Bernstein, Abell used his technical skills to ensure that compositions, such as Bernstein\u2019s \u201cMass\u201d and \u201cCandide\u201d remained true to the composer\u2019s original work despite score changes copyists may have introduced during various productions.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was so good at setting words to music,\u201d Abell said of Bernstein. \u201cHe did cross over all musical borders. I remember when his daughter Jamie brought him a piece of music from The Beatles that she was all excited about. He looked over it and explained to her why it worked so well.\u201d<\/p>\n Of Bernstein, who died in 1990 at age 72, Abell said, \u201cHe did enough in his life for four lifetimes of an ordinary person.\u201d<\/p>\n Abell seems to have picked up some of his mentor\u2019s love for teaching. He paces through the Cape Symphony\u2019s \u201cA New Era\u201d program, from Williams\u2019 higher-pitched version of \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner\u201d to Johannes Brahms\u2019 \u201cSymphony No. 1 in C Minor.\u201d Although Brahms finished composing the piece nearly 150 years ago, Abell describes the third movement, saying, \u201cYou can hear him walking in the woods\u201d as if Brahms walked there yesterday.<\/p>\n Although Abell has worked with hundreds, or thousands, of pieces of music in his 40 years as a professional musician, he still speaks passionately of Brahms\u2019 fourth movement, saying \u201cYou feel like you\u2019ve died and gone to heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n Come to the concert, Abell urges, because \u201cYou\u2019re not only seeing an 11-year-old cellist but hearing this great Brahms symphony which is so inspiring and beautiful.\u201d Tickets are available through capesymphony.org\/<\/a>. Cape Symphony’s new music director and conductor Alyssa Wang will conduct her first official concerts Dec. 5-7.<\/p>\n Abell has a light side too: \u201cI\u2019m a conductor but when I was taking some time off, I told people I was a semi-conductor.\u201d<\/p>\n Gwenn Friss is the editor of CapeWeek and covers entertainment, restaurants and the arts. Contact her at gfriss@capecodonline.com<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n