Frank Lloyd Wright’s Historic Taliesin Theater Concert Review

And then there is music. In its varied forms it is performed and partaken of indoors and out in our towns, something for everyone with ears to hear. The other day, fresh from a stunning Rural Musicians Forum concert at Taliesin’s Hillside School, which showcased the remarkable talents of a lanky, Armenian-born pianist and his diminutive Japanese-born violinist wife, now both living and teaching in Wisconsin, I was reminded poignantly of how music is the universal language. The collaboration of this man and his wife against the formidable odds of geography and cultural heritage underscored that idea charmingly. One piece in particular on their program illustrated for me the rewards of hearing and seeing music performed live. I can hum the themes in the Stravinsky they played, being familiar with it from hearing it on the radio over many years, but until I SAW and heard it played I had not properly appreciated the complexity of the fingering techniques and special effects in the violin part. I shall carry the images with me each time I hear that composition again.