Peter Rutkowski, 16, enjoys running, tennis and academic subjects like science, but it’s his piano skills that will put him in the spotlight April 30. The Penn High School junior from Granger won the Symphony of the Lakes’ Second Annual Young Artist Competition Feb. 14 with his performance of the first movement of “Concerto No. 3, Op. 26” by Sergei Prokofiev. As the competition winner, Rutkowski will play the piece at the Symphony’s next concert titled “Around the World.” The concert is at 7:30 p.m. April 30 at the Winona Heritage Room. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and $5 for students. They are available now and can be purchased at the Symphony’s new website at sotl.wagonwheelcenter.org or at the box office. In an interview Tuesday, Rutkowski said he chose Prokofiev’s piece because “It’s really fun. It’s a lot of excitement and energy, but there’s also still that contrast in moods that you can find within it. There’s a lyrical slow section that has like sad hints, hints of sorrow. But then there’s also, all around it, there’s excitement and energy and like a childish joy.” Before selecting it for the competition, Rutkowski said he had heard it in recordings and other live performances. His piano teacher suggested it for the contest, “and I thought that would be a great opportunity, so why not,” he said. During his performance of the piece in the competition, Rutkowski admitted he was nervous. “I guess one thing about a concerto is that you really have to work with the accompanist really well. I’ve done it before with him in practice and in performance, so I knew what to expect, but at the same time I was nervous because this was (my) shot, (my) one chance. I channeled that to get more excited about the piece, have more energy. But I was nervous, but I thought it went pretty well so I was happy,” Rutkowski said. Symphony of the Lakes Musical Director and Conductor Thomas Stirling said the competition had three judges this year from the South Bend and Elkhart area so he just got to sit back, listen and enjoy all the musicians in the contest. “Peter just happened to be the last one on the program, which really doesn’t have anything to do with it, but it just sort of ended that we finished with the best performance of the day, which was Peter,” Stirling said. He said all nine of the students that participated were extremely prepared. There was a wonderful audience there for the musicians to feed off their energy, and there was a wide variety of performances. “We just had students who did an amazing job, so the decision was not easy per se when it came to the top three, I think, but all in all, what really stood out with Peter’s performance was not only his technical ability in the sense of his precision he played with, but his musicality was just really, really high as well,” Stirling said. Rutkowski said he started playing piano right after he turned 6 years old and he’s been playing ever since. He currently studies under Dr. John Blacklow of the University of Notre Dame. Until concert time, Rutkowski said he continues to rehearse the piece. Stirling said the Symphony will only get a couple of times of practice with Rutkowski before the April 30 show. The orchestra is working on its own parts now, and the day before the concert the orchestra and Rutkowski will get together to rehearse for the first time. “Prokofiev is not an easy piece,” Stirling said. “It’s a pretty difficult piece even for the orchestra itself, so we have our own little things we have to work on and then we’ll bring Peter in and he’ll do two rehearsals with us, then we’ll do it together for the concert.” Rutkowski said he was sure it’ll all work out fine and he was excited to work with the orchestra. “It’ll be a great opportunity,” he said. This isn’t the first time he’s worked with an orchestra. Rutkowski said “a few years back” he worked with the South Bend Youth Symphony to perform a Beethoven concerto. “That was a good experience, but I’m sure it’ll be different with a professional orchestra than a non-professional orchestra,” he stated. As for the upcoming concert, Stirling said, “One of the things that we have sort of done this year for our whole entire season was visit a lot of different parts of the world in the sense of our concerts. We just finished with our chamber concert, which focused a little more on the Americas of the world. This concert is more representative of Europe and Asia and Russia and those parts of the world.” The concert will start off with “Lord of the Dance,” a takeoff of “River Dance,” and include Johann Strauss’s waltzes as well as pieces like Antonin Dvorak’s “New World Symphony.” Rutkowski’s performance will be in the first half of the concert. Stirling said at the concert, the Symphony will announce its next season. “So we’ll be kicking off the season subscription drive. I really can’t go into the details because we kind of want it to be a surprise, but we’ve got a really fantastic season set up, guest artists coming in, that sort of thing, so there’ll be a lot of hype coming up in the next three weeks about what will be happening with the Symphony next season,” Stirling said. “We hope to see a lot of people there and a lot of people there to support education and Peter because it’s really going to be a fantastic concert,” Stirling indicated. After this experience, Rutkowski said he’s going to stick with piano and continue working on it. He’d like to double major in college in piano and “something else,” though he wasn’t sure what that something else was yet, maybe something in the sciences. Stirling said, “One of the things that I think is interesting about Peter and his background is, it really ties into really how influential music education is not only on their musical performances but their academic studies. You find that students who do well in music tend to do well in academics. And we’ve seen that not only this year, but last year’s performer as well was big in the sciences. We want to continue the development of the educational programs here to kind of spearhead and keep music education in the forefront of people’s minds when it comes to academics as well.”
