Aaron Lockhart will relish opportunity to step to the front of the stage during July 24 concert
Aaron Lockhart didn’t know how much he wanted to become a musician until a family outing to a Los Angeles Philharmonic performance at Hollywood Bowl when he was in fifth grade.
“That was the spark that lit everything,” he says.
He knew he wanted to play strings and targeted – with thriftiness in mind – the viola.
“Viola was the weird one, the quirky one, the cheaper one,” he says. “The advertised rental prices for violins were $4 more per month.”
Aaron Lockhart. 2024. By Elaine Collins.
Now the NRO’s Principal Violist during his second summer in Breckenridge, although Lockhart also knows how to play the violin (and the piano), the viola is the instrument closest to his heart and soul.
“I’ve found that the personality of a violist is the oddball in the room,” he says. “They’re going to be eccentric. The viola is awkward to hold. It doesn’t have the high range of a violin or low sounds of a cello. Not being the melody, not being recognized in the orchestra, playing an instrument that doesn’t do anything right, I used to see these as negatives, but now I see them as positive. I embrace the weird. It’s a great and fun challenge to project the awkwardness of the viola. Done well, it can be truly magical.”
If an orchestra were a house, Lockhart sees the violists as the beams holding the place together.
“It’s about being the wooden foundation of a house rather than the window or the fancy door or the flowers. I’m the integral structure.”
However, the Las Vegas native who recently graduated from The University of Colorado in Boulder with a Master of Music is about to get a rare opportunity to appear front and center.
On July 24, under the lead of guest conductor Matthias Pintscher, preceding what is sure to be a staggering rendition of Ravel’s Bolero, Lockhart will perform his first solo for the NRO – Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů’s Rhapsody-Concerto for viola and orchestra.
“It’s a joyful, rhythmically driving piece that is going somewhere all the time,” he says. “It’s funky and a lot of fun. It’s one of the most beautiful viola pieces.”
Lockhart, who completed his undergraduate degree at the prestigious San Francisco Conservatory of Music, has made preparation a key focus this summer.
“Last summer, I had so much fun making music, but especially being outside. This summer, while I still have fun outside, I made music-making a priority,” he says. “Being in a leadership role now, music preparation is No. 1. I wake up early to practice. I get to rehearsal early. It’s my job to communicate the ideas of the conductor to the rest of the violists.”
In his free time, you’ll find Lockhart on an 80-mile bike ride or on a multi-day backpacking trip. An outdoor enthusiast who loves connecting with nature, as a musician, Lockhart’s mission is uniting with fellow humans and, even if just for a few moments, lifting their spirits.
“Making a connection is the goal,” he says. “That’s all I ever want to accomplish on stage – evoking the power of emotion, giving someone who has had a bad day or is going through a rough patch the chance to forget about it for two hours, transport to a joyful place and have a good time.”
Lockhart performs Martinů’s Rhapsody-Concerto for Viola and Orchestra during the Ravel’s Bolero concert at the Riverwalk Center in Breckenridge at 6 p.m. on July 24. The most popular work of French composer Maurice Ravel, Bolero received a wild, stamping response from the audience when it premiered in Paris in 1928 and has since become one of the world’s most beloved and hypnotic musical creations. Made famous all over again as the love theme between Dudley Moore and Bo Derek in the 1979 movie, 10, Bolero’s steady snare drum and ever-growing instrumental accompaniments render it a towering, climatic masterpiece. In addition to the program’s viola solo and Bolero, Guest conductor Matthias Pintscher will lead the orchestra through Sergei Rachmaninov’s The Isle of the Dead and Claude Debussy’sIbéria from Images pour orchestra.
Tickets start at $20 for adults and $5 for children.
Photo by Elaine Collins.