Bethlehem pianist ‘extremely excited’ for turn with Schenectady-Saratoga Symphony Orchestra

Pianist William Lauricella, a senior at Bethlehem Central High School, will be making some personal history Sunday when he performs Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor with the Schenectady-Saratoga Symphony Orchestra. It will mark Lauricella’s first professional performance gig – and he can’t wait.

“I’m extremely excited,” Lauricella said. “I love the piece a lot.”

What makes the occasion even more special is that this will be the second time Lauricella has performed the work since the Empire State Youth Orchestra’s concert in October. His performance Sunday will allow him to experience whether the SSSO’s musicians have something different to say.

“I’m always interested to play with different orchestras and different musicians, and get their take on the music,” he said.

Both opportunities to perform came as a result of Lauricella winning their respective competitions. For ESYO, it was the 2023 Lois Lyman Concerto Competition; and for SSSO, it was the 2018 Parillo Piano Competition. Winning competitions is not new for Lauricella. These include the 2020 Lois Lyman, the 2022 Young Musicians Chopin Competition, the 2022 Luzerne Music Center’s Competition and recently the Manhattan School of Music pre-college Concerto Competition, where he takes classes and studies with Inesa Sinkevych. For most of these competitions, Lauricella got to play with an orchestra.

But competitions were not on the horizon when he first began taking lessons at age 5.

“My parents, Peter and Lori, had a pretty good passion for music,” he said. “My mom likes to sing Broadway tunes. And I was put into a music studio at 2.”

But it was his older brother, who was studying piano, that got Lauricella interested.

“He only plays casually now and my other brother plays trumpet, but I always had a natural excitement toward music,” he said.

Piano wasn’t the only focus. Five years later, he said, he discovered he loved watching drummers play and loved the sounds of percussion. That led to drum lessons and eventually allowed him to join the school band.

“The transition came naturally,” he said. “I enjoyed doing both.”

Over the next few years, as his piano skills grew, Lauricella discovered a special affinity for marimba. His talents on that instrument have become, according to his teacher Richard Albagli, “phenomenal.” He’s also a member of the ESYO percussion section and attends the pre-college division at the Juilliard School as a percussionist.

Lauricella also began listening more to famous pianists, and now has two that he especially loves.

“I really love Andras Schiff. I once saw him perform live at Carnegie Hall and was really blown away by the performance. I find his interpretations of Bach to be some of the best out there. He has an amazing sense of sensitivity to his playing. Another pianist that has inspired me is Emanuel Ax. I also saw him perform live and actually got to meet him backstage. A couple of years later, I reached out to him and we set up an online lesson. Not only is his playing extremely musically intelligent but he also seems to be such a great person.”

But competitions can teach a player much about how well they do under pressure, and if you win they can offer a chance to play with an orchestra or at least to get an award. So one of the early competitions was the 2018 Parillo, for which Lauricella played Mozart’s Piano Concerto in A Major K414. As he continued to compete over the next few years, he said, Lauricella discovered that it was best if he prepared just as he would for any performance.

“You hear the other competitors and it is stressful, but you just want to play,” he said. “You can’t sacrifice that because you don’t know what the judges might like or what they’re looking for. You must be true to your own intents and play musically, and feel good at what you’ve done. Then you’re successful.”

Choosing the Rachmaninoff was his idea, he said.

“I was working on it and had not been too serious about it. I just wanted to learn it,” Lauricella said. “I did listen to some of the recordings Rachmaninoff did of the concerto. His tempos were unique. It was interesting.”

He was especially impressed with how Rachmaninoff wrote the piano part.

“You can tell it was written by a pianist because the part lays so well under the fingers,” Lauricella said. “I’m also impressed with the big, gorgeous melodic lines throughout the work. It’s a huge piece. Every movement is like a piece in itself, is very intense and wonderfully orchestrated. It’s big in scope.”

Memorizing the work didn’t faze him.

“Memorizing is easy for me. Fortunately, if I’m practicing the parts stick,” he said.

During his performance with ESYO, Lauricella learned to adjust and relax to what was going on in the orchestra, and how to respond.

“You need an immense amount of communication and to not stress out on details,” he said. “You need to communicate your ideas.”

In an unusual situation, however, the piano was not put in front of the orchestra as it usually is for a concerto, but was instead placed in front of the conductor. That setup concerned Lauricella to some extent, especially as to whether the balances would work when the house had an audience. As it turned out, everything worked out.

As for where he might attend college in the fall, Lauricella isn’t sure. He said he’s applied to all the conservatories but hasn’t decided what would be his major or whether he could have a double major in percussion and piano. But he’d be up for having a piano performance career along with winning major competitions.

“I’d be totally open to big competitions and management like the Cliburn. It would be a great opportunity and to be ready for that,” Lauricella said. “But right now I just want to get a music education.”

Also on the concert slate will be Bartok’s “Dance Suite” and Ravel’s “Mother Goose Suite.” A preconcert talk at 2 p.m. in the Guild Room will be held with Lauricella and artistic director Glen Cortese.

• LAURICELLA AND SCHENECTADY-SARATOGA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
• WHEN:  3 p.m. Sunday
• WHERE: Proctors
• HOW MUCH: $17-$24; children under 18 free with adult
• MORE INFO: 518 346-6204; www.proctors.org