About

Aresko Duo is a professional cello duo that is comprised of cellists Samuel Sykes and Benjamin Mekinulov. They are both exceptional musicians and together they deliver unique, charismatic, and exhilarating performances.

Samuel began studying the cello at age three with Karen Geyer at the Northeast Iowa School of Music and made his concerto debut at age twelve. He then continued his studies with Kevin Price-Brenner and Peter Thomas, and attended the Interlochen Arts Academy from 2017-2019. He also performed as assistant principal of the World Youth Symphony and was a YoungArts Winner in 2019 for Classical Music.

Benjamin Mekinulov started his cello studies at the age of 6 with Professor Feng Hew and continued his studies with Professor David Ying. Ben was the principal cellist of the Greater Buffalo Youth Orchestra from 2016-2019, also winning concerto competition in 2019. In 2020, he was accepted into the highly competitive National Youth Orchestra that performs at Carnegie Hall.

Music

Classical music! Examples include composers such as Joseph Haydn, Robert Schumann, and F.A. Kummer. Additionally, we perform our own arrangements of well known traditional songs such as Danny Boy, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, and many others!

Videos