Liesl demonstrates Cape's support of music, the arts

Cape Girardeau welcomed Liesl Schoenberger Doty back home last week, when she and her husband, Karl, performed in the Southeast Missouri State Symphony Orchestra Gala Season Opener concert at Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus. In addition to coming back to where music all started for her, she returned on her first wedding anniversary to the place the couple married.

Music has been in her blood all her life. From the Suzuki violin program at Southeast "when Liesl was still, more or less, a baby," to the age of 9, when she won a fiddle contest at the SEMO District Fair. She played solo with the Southeast Missouri Symphony Orchestra in high school. Music is part of her DNA.

We are proud to share Liesl's success. The musician now lives in Boston, where she is part of a 17-member chamber orchestra that was nominated for a Grammy. She has been involved in advancing the culture by performing outstanding music and, as a teacher, instructing other musicians.

We are also proud of what Liesl represents for her hometown. The River Campus continues to bring advanced cultural arts and entertainment to the Southeast Missouri region. This newspaper keeps very busy trying to highlight all the events and acts that come to the facility. The River Campus has shown that the Cape Girardeau area appreciates more than demolition derbies and superhero movies, though there is nothing wrong with those.

What Liesl represents to this area is more than the demand for the arts. She represents the ability to produce it.

There is a growing support system in this area for serious musicians. It starts at the high school levels, some of which boast excellent music and band programs. And the training and support for the arts at Southeast Missouri State University keeps getting better. The symphony is an impressive example. The university's reputation is ascending.

When Liesl came back to Cape Girardeau, which she loves doing, she told a reporter "it's pretty amazing to be able to come home and continue living in that art all the time, because that's what art is. It's an expression of life."

And the Cape Girardeau area is expressing that life more and more all the time.