Pracht "Oboes" Her Way To An Award
Connor Strange
Staff Writer
WHS junior Alyssa Pracht was one of the 64 winners of the 17th annual Nebraska Young Artist Awards, congratulated for her mastery of the oboe. The winners will have a jolly day of activities at the UNL campus on Apr. 9, including a tour of the campus and meeting the faculty.
“I was surprised because she got it, just because it’s such an honor. But she puts a lot of work into what she does,” Band Director Brady Rohlfs said. “With that, I think it’s a very deserved award for her because of the time she puts in.”
Though she’s no novice to the concept of extracurricular music performance, this award is different than her numerous past experiences.
“I’ve done honor bands, All-State Band and UNL’s Winter Winds Festival. This is the first thing that was really not like that.”
The award was handed out to a number of high schoolers from various schools in Nebraska, but they’ll all come together in Lincoln to accept it.
"We get to go into UNL and spend time with the faculty and other students and get a feel for what it's like there. And then, at the end of the day, they'll have an awards ceremony," Pracht said.
She confides that music is more than enough to keep her busy when she’s not juggling the other stresses of high school life. She attempts to hone her skills nightly, although she can’t always find the time.
One of the two instruments she toils away upon is the piano, with which she competes regularly.
“I started piano when I was in second grade. It’s typically what people will start on, because it’s a good foundation,” Pracht said. “I do a lot of competitions in the fall and spring where I play songs and get a rating.”
When she’s not getting her piano on, she can be found tooting the missile-like woodwind known as an oboe.
“In fifth grade, when we had to choose our instruments, my dad took me into Dietze [a local instruments shop] and I just liked the oboe best, so I stuck with it.” Over the years, Pracht evolved from an elementary schooler discovering the oboe amidst Dietze’s aisles to a junior winning competitions left and right.
"The award winning was actually just for oboe. All the honor bands that I go to are for the oboe, so that's basically all I've done before this for awards."
The claim of being multi-instrument artists is no slight achievement, and Pracht wishes to turn her talent into an occupation in her adulthood.
“I’m thinking of going both routes, doing education and performance, because that way I have better chances of getting a job. The music industry is not very certain.”
Seeing as Alyssa is aiming her sights on a future career in music, it’s obviously a big part of her day-to-day.
“It’s kind of the overarching ‘thing’ in my life that I keep going towards,” Pracht said.
When Alyssa thought of music’s impact upon her life and what it truly meant to her, she put it simply:
“It’s what I love to do the most."
