Senior Ashlyn Linton had always dreamed of playing a concerto on the piano with an orchestra, and on Saturday her dream came true.

The Hillsdale College symphony orchestra performed two concerts last weekend. “Concertos & Pops” featured student concerto performances March 28. The next day, the orchestra performed “Wolves & Ducks & Dragons,” geared toward families and kids by telling the “Peter and the Wolf” children’s story and a sequel, “What About the Duck?”

Linton, along with seniors Samuel Jarzab and Ellia He, won the concerto competition earlier this year that gave them the chance to perform with the orchestra. Linton started preparing for the concert last summer.

“I started learning all the notes, and then coming back for this fall semester, my professor was showing me the different things I needed to do,” Linton said. “I knew some of the notes, but I needed to change the technique and approach to things, and I had to memorize it too, and learn the rest of the notes. So I hadn’t fully learned the piece until December.”

When choosing which piece to play for the concerto competition in January, Linton landed on Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.1, Op.1 because she liked the song’s range. 

“No matter how much I worked on it, it was still just as beautiful,” Linton said. “Rachmaninoff wrote it when he was 19, which is crazy. It’s very Russian, so you can hear all the Russian sounds, which I love, like big bell sounds and military sounds. But it also reminds me of a soldier going through the throes of war, and remembering some of the beautiful parts back home, but also getting through the tumult — people dying left and right. So it has its little shimmery, high, beautiful parts, and quiet, soft parts. But it also has really strong military, dark parts.”

Linton said her piano instructor, Artist and Teacher of Collaborative Piano Daniel Kuheler, helped her overcome her worries and improve by giving her concrete things to work on, such as refining her technique.

“Dr. Kuehler is the best. If I was struggling with something he’d try to give me something to do, a different technique to try or a different way of practicing, so that I could approach it from all these different angles, instead of getting stuck in the same way that I didn’t know how to improve on,” Linton said. “And so that was very helpful. He also was always very available, even when he was super busy.”

Jarzab played the clarinet in Aaron Copland’s “Concerto for Clarinet,” and said it was a joy to perform with the orchestra. 

“I feel very humbled and thankful to have had the opportunity,” Jarzab said. “It was a beautiful thing to sculpt the music with the orchestra and Professor James Holleman and bring it to life.”

Fellow senior Michael Berry accompanied Linton’s performance in the orchestra. As a violinist, Berry said piano concertos aren’t always his favorite, but Rachmaninoff never ceases to amaze him.

“The Rachmaninoffs are always just amazing,” Berry said. “I love accompanying Ashlyn, who performed it, and there’s nothing really technical about why I enjoy it. I just love it. It sounds amazing.”

Senior Sophia Labonte said the Copland concerto was her favorite piece.

“The simplicity of the opening melody is just breathtaking,” Labonte said. “And then all of the stylized, more improvisational style elements of the second half are just really fun. And Sam did a great job.”

After playing the violin at the concert, He said she is thankful for all the people who supported her.

“Playing the piece again this time I was thinking of all the ways God had worked in just these past eight weeks, and was so grateful for all those who have taught, rebuked, and been a continual friend and mentor to me in music and life and in Christ through much darkness,” He said.

Senior Turner Callaghan decided to attend Saturday’s concert because he had been impressed by the orchestra’s work in previous performances.

“I had heard Ellia’s Vitali before, so I knew I was going to enjoy that,” Callaghan said.

Sunday’s show began with Sergei Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf,” followed by Andrew Maxfield’s “What About the Duck?” During the introduction of the show, Holleman said he has wanted to perform a children’s show since he arrived at Hillsdale in 1997.

Narrated by Associate Professor of Theatre Victoria Matsos, “What About the Duck?” is the sequel to the Prokofiev story and helps answer the age-old question concerning the duck eaten alive by the wolf. 

“It’s been played only a couple times,” Berry said. “It’s something that people wouldn’t be familiar with because it’s a modern piece that adds to the story.” 

Both Saturday and Sunday concluded with a 24-piece amalgamation of works paying tribute to the film composer John Williams, followed by movie scores from “Ratatouille,” “UP!,” and “How to Train Your Dragon.” Senior Jake Hamilton played the piano solos of “Ratatouille” and “UP!,” while Berry was the concertmaster during these scores. 

“It was a pleasure to play as the concertmaster, because there was an unusual amount of solos in these pieces,” Berry said. “I was definitely blessed to be able to play them all.”