Grass Valley, CA — Music in the Mountains (MIM) welcomes cellist Amelia Zitoun to the Center for the Arts on Sunday, Nov. 1 at 2 p.m., for a recital built around some of her favorite pieces. Zitoun will be joined by acclaimed pianist Minhye Choi.
The program centers on two works Zitoun has lived with for years: Debussy’s Sonata for Cello and Piano in D Minor and Britten’s Cello Sonata in C, Op. 65, alongside shorter works by Beethoven and Janáček. “All of the pieces are pieces that I love, pieces that I genuinely enjoy playing and listening to,” she says.
Debussy’s Sonata for Cello and Piano in D Minor is one of the last six pieces he was composing at the end of his life, when he was dying of stomach cancer. “It’s completely the opposite of what you expect from someone who knows he is dying,” says Zitoun.”It’s open and free and so much fun to play.”
The Britten, by contrast, is darker, and different from the typical piece written for cello. The five-movement work was written for Rostropovich, one of the greatest cello players of the 20th century. “There’s not much like it for cello,” says Zitoun. If it’s done very well, it is extremely powerful.”
Rounding out the program are Janáček’s Pohádka, drawn from a folk fairy tale, and Beethoven’s Sonata No. 4 in C Major, Op. 102, No. 1 — an unusually spare two-movement work for its time that Zitoun finds structurally striking and tender.
For Zitoun, the cello has never been simply an instrument. “It is my voice, my means of expression,” she says. “It’s a vessel, a means to communicate what the composers have written.”
About Amelia Zitoun
Amelia Zitoun currently studies at the Colburn School under acclaimed cellist Clive Greensmith, building on earlier training with Hans Jørgen Jensen and Horacio Contreras. Before Colburn, she spent five years as a Merit Scholar at the Music Institute of Chicago’s Academy.
Zitoun is a regular top-prize recipient at international competitions. She won the Gold Medal at the 2023 Stulberg International String Competition and second prize at the 2024 Klein International String Competition. Most recently, she advanced to the round of twelve at the 2026 George Enescu International Competition and was a quarterfinalist in the 2025 Isang Yun International Competition.
As a soloist, Zitoun has appeared with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, and the San José Chamber Orchestra. She played cello for the Pelios String Quartet, winner of the Silver Medal at the 2023 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and the Gold Medal and Haydn Prize at the 2023 St. Paul String Quartet Competition.
Joining Zitoun on stage is pianist Minhye Choi, a collaborative pianist at the Colburn Conservatory and Academy of Music who has performed throughout Europe, Korea, and the United States. Tickets are available at www.musicinthemountains.com.
Music in the Mountains has been bringing world-class classical music to Nevada County since 1982.