Seventeen-year-old Alex Hill has kept himself focused on a singular goal: to play his cello in the Student Concerto Competition at Indian Hill Music School, where he studies with Timothy Terranella. A cellist since age 8, Hill has aimed toward this competition his whole junior year, calling it a “solid goal [he was] proud to work toward.”
“It’s a way to express myself, but it’s also a form of meditation. I can be at ease with what’s happening around me when I’m playing.”
—Alex Hill
At the end of February, Hill’s goal was realized. Among five finalists, the judges selected their winner, and Hill and his cello took top prize.
When he received the results, Hill was “very happy and surprised all at once.” The competition had been nerve-wracking, since he was the last student to perform. His fellow musicians were “very, very talented kids [who played] really just superb pieces,” says Hill. As he listened to one performance after another, Hill felt a sense of reward that he could call these musicians his peers. “If nothing else, I could say that I was among them,” he says.
On April 25, Hill will perform the winning piece, Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C Major, Hob. VIIb No. 1, with the Orchestra of Indian Hill at its spring concert titled “Showcasing Our Own.” The grandeur of his accomplishment is thrilling to the high schooler. “Getting to play with a real professional orchestra, that’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I’m really gratified to have the opportunity,” he says.
Not exactly eager
Though Hill started playing piano at age 5 and cello at age 8, his love for music blossomed slowly. “For the first few years, I wasn’t exactly eager,” he recalls with a smile.
Practicing two instruments every day, for up to an hour each, is a challenging discipline for a young student to develop. Hill reflects that it was when he graduated from practice workbooks to compositions by “real” musicians that he felt his love for music start to take root. “There’s a tipping point in a piece where once you’ve grasped the rhythm and the notes, it’s more like a personal statement, what you’re playing. It’s like you’re taking what they wrote on the page and making it your own. That’s where it comes to be an enjoyment, a pastime more than a chore.”
It helps that Hill comes from a family of musicians. Both grandparents on his mother’s side are musically gifted teachers and performers, and his younger brother plays violin. “Music plays a large part in our identity as a family. During Christmas we do a family chamber group and play carols together. To play with and for each other is really nice,” he says.
A musical future
Hill’s sense of his musical future is simultaneously humble and driven. “Performance is hopefully going to be a part of what I do. Without performance it is hard to hold on to your reason for playing.” But, he continues, “I don’t know if I’ll make a living out of performing. Most of all I want to keep studying and playing for myself. If I can perform every now and again, that would be even better.”
At age 17, Hill has already learned the benefits of a lifestyle that features discipline and practice. “It’s a way to express myself, but it’s also a form of meditation. I can be at ease with what’s happening around me when I’m playing. If I didn’t play for a long time, I wouldn’t live as much in the moment,” he says.
That sense of moment-by-moment ease will help as he prepares for his performance with the professional orchestra next month. Hill enjoys the technical challenges of Haydn’s concerto, especially “the double stops, or playing two strings at the same time, and how it goes way up in thumb position.”
YouTube and ‘minus ones’
Hill has spent many hours listening to recordings, trying to master these technical difficulties as well as forming his own emotional interpretation of the piece. He plays along with YouTube clips and recordings called “minus ones,” which include the orchestra sections of the music but not the solo. And yet Hill knows that no amount of listening can replace playing together with a live orchestra. “There is that give and take—you have to get used to the quirks of whomever you are playing with, and your synergy, and how your interpretations come together as one interpretation.”
Before the performance, Hill will rehearse with the orchestra only twice. Not surprisingly, he would prefer more time to prepare. He finds the high level of scrutiny on him as a soloist disconcerting. “[I’ll] have to play just as [I] mean to, or be written off,” he sighs. And yet his voice is steady with confidence as he speaks about his musical passion. “It is a well-rounded piece, very complex and philosophical in some parts, and technically show-offy in some parts.” His eyes sparkle as he makes his invitation. “Come and listen,” he says.
