CATCHING UP WITH LIESL

"So busy" are the words 13-year-old Liesl Schoenberger uses to describe her life. Last weekend, she was in Sedalia competing in the Missouri Junior Fiddle Championship. Most weekends she's in Bloomington, Ind., taking violin lessons from her teacher, Mimi Zweig. If not, she's performing at a music festival somewhere in Missouri or Illinois.

Her first recording of old-time fiddle tunes -- titled "Liesl" -- is about to be released. And Sunday afternoon at Old St. Vincent's Church, she will give a recital of music by Saint Saens and Grieg.

"I don't know what it would be like without a busy schedule," she says. "Busy weekends when we go from one place to another just thrill me."

Lest anyone worry for Liesl's childhood, the braces-wearing Cape Girardeau violin prodigy also is a soccer player and especially likes talking on the phone. When school starts, the eighth-grader will be president of the St. Mary's Cathedral School student council and a cheerleader.

The daughter of Dr. John and Brenda Schoenberger, Liesl gave lectures to grade-school students in Perryville and in Murphysboro, Ill., last year. She played some violin and fiddle and talked to them about the dedication the instrument requires of her.

"The point is, if you're good at anything you should pursue it," Liesl says. "It doesn't matter what it is."

This summer she attended the Indiana University String Academy along with about 100 students from all over the world. She was the youngest student there.

She also participated in a two-week camp in Kansas, taking a master class with a teacher from the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Liesl started on the Suzuki Method at 2 1/2 years and continued through the entire program. "I can't remember life without the violin," she says.

She began playing fiddle tunes a few years ago at the behest of her piano teacher as a way of having fun with the instrument. Now, Liesl has won more fiddle contests than you can shake a bow at. She was 9 when she won the fiddle contest at the Southeast Missouri District Fair.

Mark O'Connor and Southern Illinois native Alison Krause are two of her fiddle idols. Liesl has won some of the same contests Krause won on her way up.

Last year, Liesl won the Missouri Junior Fiddle Championship. This year she finished second to one of the many friends she's made on the festival circuit.

"There's always next year," she said.

She had expected last spring's recording session for "Liesl" and the musicians in Nashville to be very serious. She was wrong.

"We jammed a lot. It was fun," she said. "Then we went out and got burgers."

The tapes and CDs are due to arrive in mid-September. Her parents underwrote the cost of producing the recording, which primarily will be distributed at the festivals she plays.

Sunday's recital will begin at 2 p.m. at Old St. Vincent's Church. Liesl will play Saint Saens' Concerto No. 3 in B minor, Op. 61, and Grieg's Sonata in C minor, Op. 45. She will be accompanied by pianist Vera Parkin of the Saint Louis Symphony Music School.

Donations will be accepted for the church's organ restoration fund.