Aaron Dieter and Charles Kritsch Win OHS Concerto Competition

     Back in January all OHS band, orchestra, and choir students had the opportunity to audition for the annual OHS concerto competition and senior: Charles Kritsch and Junior: Aaron Dieter were selected to perform their pieces with the OHS orchestras at their concert on March 20th. 

A concerto is a piece written for a solo instrument or voice to be accompanied by an orchestra. There are concertos written for almost any instrument and voice. Usually when a concerto is performed, the soloist stands out in front of the orchestra and plays their part from memory. 

As one could imagine, learning to perform a concerto is extremely difficult as the required musical abilities in these pieces are far advanced from the standard high school level of playing. Many concertos are written to be played at the college or professional level. 

But how in the world were two high school students able to learn this very advanced repertoire? The answer is that it takes many hours of practice and dedication to their instrument outside of  band and orchestra class to be able to play high level repertoire. 

Both Aaron Dieter and Charles Kritsch have been taking private lessons since middle school. Charles Kritsch started working on his piece: “Viola Concerto in G major” by Carl Stamitz back in 2020 and Aaron Dieter started working on his piece: “Concerto for Marimba and String Orchestra” by Emmanuel Sejourne in August. To put that in perspective: The OHS Orchestra performs high school level repertoire in concert about every 2-3 months. 

Often times concertos are written with sections designed for the soloist to "show off"  their advanced musical abilities. As a result, concertos take a lot of effort to perfect to the point where the soloist can play the hard parts correctly.  Especially when you factor in more advanced aspects of playing including tone, style and expression into the performance. 

"The hardest part of playing my piece is playing it in the 'classical' (1750's-1830's) style. Being able to play with a soft and floating tone while also projecting powerful sound is difficult on the viola," said Charles.

But besides playing the solo part proficiently, another aspect of playing a concerto is knowing how to play with accompaniment. When the candidates auditioned, both of them had a pianist play a reduced version of the orchestra part to demonstrate that if selected, they will be able to stay in time and blend with the orchestra. 

This can be challenging since it is easy to get ahead or behind the orchestra which would make the piece fall apart. It is also crucial that in some sections the soloist is heard above the orchestra and vice versa. 

According to Aaron, “My part is completely different from the orchestra part and fitting my part in with them is the hardest part of playing my piece.”

But one of the hardest parts of playing a concerto is controlling nerves during the performance. While playing a concerto, everyone is focusing on you and while playing you part from memory can be extremely vulnerable to making mistakes noticeable by the audience.  

To combat this, musicians need to practice performing their piece to avoid collapsing on the spot. However, both Charles and Aaron have a lot of experience of performing under pressure where it becomes second nature. Charles has done many other auditions in the past including an audition at Eastman School of Music on Rochester, New York. He also won the Birch Creek concerto competition in Door County.  Aaron has recently was a runner up in the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra Young Artist Concerto Competition. 

Aaron was asked if  he was nervous he said, "I've performed in the PAC and in front of large crowds before."

After many hours of hard work spent outside of band and orchestra class preparing these two pieces, the time to perform them has finally come. The OHS orchestra concerto will be Monday, March 20th in the PAC at 7:30 PM. Aaron will play his piece during the junior orchestra portion of the concert and Charles will play his during the senior portion.