AREA MUSICIANS PLAY FOR NPR HOST; MARTIN GOLDSMITH EMCEES

Martin Goldsmith's classical music performing background consists of playing French horn in high school and singing in a chorus in Washington, D.C. The knowledgeable and articulate host of the National Public Radio Program "Performance Today" grew up loving all kinds of music -- classical, rock 'n' roll and jazz -- and says the genus doesn't matter.

"It's whatever gets to the center part of your soul," he said.

Saturday afternoon at Academic Auditorium, Goldsmith was host to "A Young Musicians Classical Showcase," an event that spotlighted six of the area's finest young classical musicians.

About 400 people attended the concert at Academic Auditorium. The event was taped for future broadcast on KRCU-FM and for possible use on Goldsmith's program.

Flautist Jessica Terry of Jackson High School received sustained applause for her rendition of Chevalier Paggi's "Remembrance Napoletane," a piece Goldsmith introduced as "something that sounds like it should be served with Parmesan cheese." Terry was accompanied by Southeast piano student Diana Weaver.

Goldsmith provided more substantive information about cellist Kirk Miller's selection, the sonorous Sonata In A Major by Luigi Boccherini. Miller, a senior at Cape Central High School, was accompanied on piano by his father, Dr. Gary Miller.

Erin Darter of Jackson High School was accompanied by Tyson Wunderlich of Perryville High School in singing Mozart's "Alleluia," which Goldsmith said is one of his favorite vocal works.

The loss of the public address system didn't dissuade Goldsmith from carrying on his post-performance interviews. Informed that she sang her first solo at age 5, Goldsmith asked Terry if she was nervous. "When you're 5 you're never nervous about anything," she said.

Harpist Sophonisba Gathman provided some of the afternoon's most haunting and beautiful music with her renditions of three traditional Irish pieces. Gathman, a ninth-grader at R.O. Hawkins Middle School in Jackson, said afterward that she learned to play the harp after becoming bored with the piano.

"Mostly I liked that my sister doesn't play it," she said. "I wanted to be different from her."

Violinist Liesl Schoenberger performed the lively and difficult Scherzo-Tarentelle, Opus 16, by Henri Wieniasaki, whose fanatical following made him the Sinatra and Elvis of his day, Goldsmith said.

Accompanied on both pieces by Southeast piano student Patryce King, Schoenberger followed with Joseph Achron's soulful "Hebrew Melody." Schoenberger is a freshman at Notre Dame High School.

Schoenberger, King and Miller also combined to perform Joseph Haydn's Trio No. 1.

Goldsmith said he sometimes is asked how classical music will fare in the future. That future is in the hands of the next generation, he said. "You heard at least a part of that answer this afternoon."