Cape offers plays and music in last half of October

Cape Girardeau is playing host to a virtual avalanche of significant cultural events this month, including what may be violinist Liesl Schoenberger's final local performance and the release of the first compact disc featuring the university wind ensemble.

Thursday, a national touring company had the town humming "You Gotta Have Heart" from "Damn Yankees." Tonight, residents may choose between the opening of the River City Players' production of "Blood Ties" or a staged reading based on the works of Raymond Carver and Tess Gallagher.

Next week, Schoenberger will have a solo with the Southeast Missouri Symphony Orchestra. At the 8 p.m. Tuesday concert in Academic Hall, she'll play Tchaikovsky's Concerto in D major, all three movements. The young violinist is a familiar and popular local musician, her talent causing local fans to watch her grow up on stage.

Schoenberger won the Indiana State Governor's Cup two years in a row, and they wouldn't let her compete a third year in a row. She won the Missouri Junior Fiddle championship in 1998. She recorded two fiddle CDs and played at the grand Ole Opry in April 2000.

Last summer was her eighth at the Indiana University String Academy. Her teacher, Mimi Zweig, is the director.

A senior at Notre Dame High School, she will be auditioning for schools in January and February: Julliard, Northwestern, Indiana, Michigan, the New England Conservatory and the Cleveland Institute. But musicians don't really pick schools.

"You go to the school because of the teacher," Schoenberger said.

At first blush, it would seem the music is the only interest Schoenberger has time for. Not so. "I like being involved in everything," she said. "There are a lot of people who know everything about music and almost nothing about the rest of the world."

She said she hopes to avoid that trap and find a balance between music and life outside the concert hall or rehearsal studio.

She plans to major in music in college but also is interested in politics, journalism and law.

"Morley Swingle is my guy," she said, referring to the Cape Girardeau County prosecutor. "I like doing what you believe in and bringing about justice. I like arguing."

Class president for the last two years, this interest was piqued by teacher Steve Mosley in a freshman civics class.

At one point, Schoenberger had decided she didn't want to play in an orchestra for the rest of her life, but after attending Innsbruck Camp near St. Louis, she reconsidered: "It enlightened me on what it's like to be a symphony player." She saw one could play chamber music and do other things.

Now, "everything is a possibility."

Community's orchestra

Sara Edgerton, conductor and artistic director of Southeast's symphony orchestra said the university's goal is to reach out to the community by developing student scholarships and highlighting local treasures.

Commerce Bank of Cape Girardeau recently donated $5,000 to the university to underwrite the Southeast Missouri Symphony Series and boost the efforts of the orchestra as the university lays the groundwork for a school of the visual and performing arts.

The funds from Commerce, along with matching funds from the University and other gifts to the institution, will be used to increase scholarships by $25,000, launch the concert series and expand the current university symphony with talented area musicians.

The university orchestra welcomes the talents of community members like Schoenberger and others, said Edgerton, and as additional funds become available, hopes to attract more members and soloists from throughout the region.

"It's a long-range process," she said.

The series includes four full-symphony concerts as well as a chamber orchestra concert at Old St. Vincent's Church.

New CD on the way

The Southeast Missouri State University Symphonic Wind Ensemble will be released Thursday, Oct. 25 at the opening concert of the season in Academic Auditorium at 8 p.m.

The first commercially produced disc to feature a Southeast group includes live performances from 1997-1999 concert seasons.

One of the highlights is Pulitzer prize-winning composer Karel Husa conducting his own work. Also featured is Percy Grainger's "Children's March" and Frank Ticheli's "Blue Shades."

During the 1999-2000 school year, the wind ensemble also recorded "Music that Works" for JPM Music Publications. That disc was distributed to music teachers nationwide.