- [Announcer] On this episode of "Onstage at Curtis."

- I just love classical music.

I mean, it encompasses so much.

I mean, we say classical music, but I mean, we study all the periods.

We study baroque, classical, romantic.

Yeah, and even modern.

There's modern composers writing music.

So for me, it's just music.

Yeah, it's just music I love.

- [Announcer] In partnership with the Curtis Institute of Music, WHYY presents the following program.

(upbeat classical music) - My name's Elijah Orlenko.

I study piano at the Curtis Institute of Music.

(classical piano music) I think my mom just believed in the value of studying music.

It was kind of her initiative to get to get both me and my sister, I have a sister, to get into music.

Yeah, she got us into music.

(classical music continues) That's when I started learning the piano.

And at first, of course, it was not very serious.

It was just one of the things that my parents got me to do as a child.

And progressively, as I got older, I got more serious.

And around the age of 12 was when I pretty much knew that this would be my focus.

(classical piano music) When you're new to something, you have to deal with all the not so fun aspects of it.

Like learning the craft of piano, it takes a long time, and it takes a long time before you can feel free at the instrument.

And that part, from getting there, getting to the point where you can kinda let go is not necessarily the funnest part.

The funnest part is letting go.

(classical piano music) I don't know what my least favorite part is.

I just know what I value the most about it, and that's the chance to explore the music of so many people, people who may not be alive, who may be alive, 'cause essentially, I consider it to be a window into their souls, their music.

And that's just such a interesting thing to do, to get a glimpse into somebody else's soul.

Yeah, but not favorite, no.

I have nothing that's not favorite.

Just regular daily activities, but not favorite.

(classical piano music) Well, right now, my friends are from Curtis, so they're all so good.

It's a privilege to get to work with them.

(classical music continues) Yeah, we just take every opportunity to play together.

Yeah, to listen to each other.

It's really special.

(classical piano music) I guess it's a gut feeling.

Some music, it touches you in a way that you can't really put into words.

It's just like, yeah.

That's the meaningful part about life.

I think, for me, it's encapsulated in music.

And also, yeah, that's probably what led me to choose this as a career path.

(audience applauding) So I played three etudes, Transcendental Etudes by Franz Liszt, the Eroica, the Wilde Jagd, and the Ricordanza.

And these are three works that are very different, but all of them have one thing in common, and that's how much, how strongly they embraced the full capacity of the piano as an instrument.

And that's because Liszt is one of those people who was a master at the piano.

("Ricordanza" by Franz Liszt) (classical music continues) (classical piano music) (classical music continues) Curtis was my dream school.

It was my first choice.

(classical piano music) As musicians, we all know their reputation of this school and the people who have gone here in the past, the legends.

And it's just, I really wanted to, I mean, I was so happy when I got in and to get the chance to even be in the same building as the people who were here before.

(classical orchestral music) The most important thing is to become, not to be inhibited by the practical details of what I have to do to play.

(orchestral music continues) I need to study the notes, study the score to an extent where I'm no longer bothered by those details.

And I can just appreciate the emotional content behind it.

(classical orchestral music) That's where the bulk of the work is behind getting ready for a performance.

And after that, you can just, it's more about feeling than about thinking, and the lungs just kinda like relaxing into the sound.

And then it kind of, it's more of a gut level process than an intellectual process.

(orchestra music continues) I just think it's a beautiful experience that there's so many people who are interested in music and that I can be a part of that in offering the music.

For me, that's just a very wholesome situation.

(classical orchestral music) I'm constantly analyzing what goes on in my mind on stage, because we all get nervous.

And nervous tend to maybe do something weird to your mind.

Like maybe you can't think this in the same way that you could when you're calm sitting down in your practice room.

So it's important for me to kind of be able to navigate my mind in the context of nerves.

In that particular performance, I can't even explain, but I feel like I managed to grasp a better understanding on how to relax, yeah, on stage.

The adrenaline is also kinda like just, I like it, you know?

(laughs) I like the rush.

It's maybe some people like doing other things for adrenaline.

For me, it's playing on stage.

I played Ravel's "LeTombeau de Couperin" in the Field Concert Hall, that is a suite, Ravel's Suite of six works.

And each work is dedicated to one of Ravel's friends who died in World War I.

("LeTombeau de Couperin" by Maurice Ravel) (classical piano music) (classical music continues) (classical piano music) (classical music continues) To get concerts, you have to win a competition most of the time.

So that's the path to get a career.

If you win a competition, a major big competition, this is just my limited knowledge, you get noticed by people, people who are in charge of assigning concerts, and you get the chance to play in concerts.

And if you have the repertoire and if you're ready to play, and then that's a chance to make a career.

I would just wanna go to every city and play in their major halls, go to New York, play in Carnegie Hall, go to Europe, go to even in Toronto, where I'm from.

There's lots of halls there, that I've been there as a audience member, and I'd like to play like Roy Thomson Hall, yeah, Koerner Hall, at The Royal Conservatory of Music.

There's so many.

(classical piano music) Well, I don't, yeah, I don't wanna put a box around any sort of music that I would be interested in.

And the reason that I'm interested in classical is not for its name, but just because this is music that I happen to be interested in.

And so any music, I would listen to with an open mind.

And if it's something that kind of, I feel like it's just beautiful and I can participate in, I would love to participate in that.

I would like to collaborate with as many of my peers as possible, because they're all amazing musicians.

It's just a matter of time of that's the limitation that we have to do classes, we have to practice, we have to do our solo repertoire as well.

So we can't just constantly play in chamber music and in duets and stuff like that.

But we try to stuff our schedules as much as possible with that.

So it's almost just everybody at Curtis.

(classical orchestral music) If I had the chance to travel back in time, I would be terrified of telling my younger self anything, because I don't know what that would do.

I don't know what kind of ripple effect, butterfly effect that would create to change the future.

And I have no wish to change my present right now.

Yeah, so I would just stay away from my younger self, not touch him.

My future self, (classical piano music) if I got a chance to speak with my future self, I would ask him for advice, not give him advice.

Yeah, and maybe he'll give me something useful.

(classical piano music) Well, next is working on new repertoire, practicing playing with my peers, and preparing as much repertoire as big of a program, and to be as ready as possible to play.

Yeah, and to expand my understanding of music.

(classical piano music) (classical music continues)