The winners of Hillsdale College’s 2024 Annual Student Aria and Concerto competitions described a year-long process of practice before their success on Jan. 28. 

Sophomore Elena Bull, junior Paul Sri, and seniors Janae Israel, Marie-Therese Romanos, and Emiliya Smyk won the chance to perform their piece with the Hillsdale College orchestra. Sophomore Zachary Rinas earned an honorable mention for his violin performance.

Unlike previous competitions, the panel of judges announced the winners directly after the competition. Twenty eight students competed in the event.

Bull and Sri will perform their pieces in the March 2 and 3 concerts in Markel Auditorium. Israel, Romanos, and Smyk will perform their pieces May 10 in the Christ Chapel with the orchestra. 

Sri started piano lessons when he was six years old. His piano teacher at Hillsdale, Daniel Kuehler, recommended the first movement of Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor” to Sri for the concerto competition. 

“My favorite part is the second theme. It’s one of the least flashy parts of the entire song, but for me, it’s the most emotion-laden part of the piece,” Sri said. “There’s a lot of chromaticism in the second theme. It tears at your heart strings.”

Like others, Sri prepared his piece over the course of a year, even practicing at the camp he worked at over the summer. 

“I only had access to a piano once a week,” Sri said.

On the days he couldn’t practice on a piano, Sri had to get creative.

“I would just open up the music and look at the part that I learned on the piano and then practice it on the table top,” Sri said. “Even though I wasn’t having access to a piano, I was able to get around that by doing some mental practice and listening to the song as often as possible, really filling my head with it.”

Sri returned to campus in the fall having learned five pages of his piece. 

“It was really helpful to have that momentum built,” Sri said. “The rest of it came together through consistency and discipline throughout the semester. I have probably been more disciplined with this piece than I’ve been with any of my piano pieces so far in college, and it did pay off.”

Sri’s father and two younger sisters made the trip from Colorado to see him perform. 

“That was honestly one of the highlights of the entire experience,” Sri said. “That probably meant more to me than winning the competition.”

Bull began playing the flute ten years ago in her fourth grade band. 

“I went to the little music shop in my town and tried all the instruments,” Bull said. “I don’t know why I picked the flute. It was a Holy Spirit thing.”

Bull performed the first movement of Carl Nielson’s “Flute Concerto.” She first learned the piece in high school but revisited it in April 2023 when deciding what to prepare for the 2024 concerto competition.

“I’m glad I chose a piece that I love,” Bull said. “It’s such a blessing to be able to get to know a piece that intimately.”

Bull performed a piano reduction of the concerto for the competition. Her mother, a pianist, learned part of the piece over winter break to help Bull practice. 

Bull said it will be fun to play with the orchestra. 

“It seemed like a really nice full-circle moment because I started this piece in high school, and now I’ll actually play it as it was originally written,” Bull said.

Bull has two weeks before her concert to prepare the piece as it was written to be performed with an orchestra. 

Romanos, a soprano, has been singing since she was 12. For the aria competition, she chose to perform Mozart’s “Batti, Batti, O Bel Masetto” from the opera “Don Giovanni” and Massenet’s “Je suis encore tout étourdie” from the opera “Manon.” 

Smyk, a mezzo-soprano, said she has been involved with music since childhood, starting with the piano and double bass in a Ukrainian folk group. 

“I learned how to sing pretty much through family members,” Smyk said. “We would all sit around singing Ukrainian folk songs.”

Now a music major, Smyk plans to pursue opera after her time at Hillsdale. 

Smyk chose to sing Bizet’s “Pres des remparts de Séville” from “Carmen” and Saint-Saens’s “Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix” from “Samson et Dalila.” Smyk said she enjoyed the acting in both pieces. 

Smyk said she learned the judges would have sheet music for her piece, adding another layer of rigor to the competition. 

“I’ve performed before and completely faked my French,” Smyk said. “But they had the sheet music, so you had to get every word right.”

According to Smyk, years of work went into her success. 

“It took hours and hours of practice, locking myself in a practice room, singing in the car as I’m driving, singing to myself while I clean my room,” Smyk said. “I never ever set myself up thinking I’m going to win.”

Israel began playing the trumpet in fifth grade. After researching her options, Israel chose to play Arutunian’s “Concerto for Trumpet.”

“There’s not a ton of great trumpet concertos. A lot of them are pretty esoteric,” Israel said. “This piece has really great contrasting melodies and a really beautiful lyrical section. I also tried to pick a piece that was going to be fun for the orchestra to play.”

Israel said she worked on the concerto for over a year, first learning the technical aspects of the piece before memorizing and perfecting it. 

“Both my parents are professional musicians, so that’s cool,” Israel said. “But it’s not so cool when you’re trying to learn a piece and they’re upstairs. My mom came into my room and she was like, ‘You can’t play it that fast. You might as well put that trumpet back in the box because it doesn’t sound very good. Play it slower.’”

Israel said she didn’t expect to win the competition. 

Unlike Sri and Bull, Israel will be performing with the aria winners in May, her last concert at Hillsdale College. 

“The main concert is going to be so good. We’re playing a piece called the “Pines of Rome” [Respighi], and I love that piece,” Israel said. “I’m definitely going to be sobbing at the end.”