The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: Prodigy violinist Julian Rhee performs a recital of Bach, Beethoven and others in Spring Green on Monday night

By Jacob Stockinger

The Ear has received the following announcement from the Rural Musicians Forum:

“His performance knocked our socks off.”

That remark came two years ago from the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra about the competition performance by violinist Julian Rhee (below, at 14) with the orchestra. This February he played the entire Violin Concerto by Johannes Brahms with the WCO.

Then in March, Rhee (below at 16) won first place in the Madison Symphony Wisconsin Young Artists Final Forte competition with his brilliant performance of the first movement of Peter Tchaikovsky’s virtuosic Violin Concerto in D Major. And that is just 2017!

Now 16 and a junior at Brookfield East High School, Julian Rhee has been winning violin competitions almost every year since he was 7.

And he has received accolades to match, such as this quote from classical music blog The Well Tempered Ear: “What makes Rhee so outstanding is that the level of his musicality matches his high technical mastery.” (You can hear him talk about himself and his playing in the YouTube video at the bottom.)

His recital on this coming Monday night, June 26, at 7:30 p.m. in Spring Green will feature beautiful works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Henryk Wieniawski and Eugene Ysaye. (Sorry, no word on specific works.)

He will be performing at Taliesin’s Hillside Theater (below), at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin compound in Spring Green.

This will be the second concert of the Rural Musicians Forum 2017 Summer Series, “Beautiful Music in a Beautiful Space.”

A free-will donation will be requested.

The Hillside Theater is located at 6604 County Highway 23, in Spring Green.

Don’t miss this concert. You’ll be able to say, “I heard him before he became famous!”

For more information about the Rural Musicians Forum, go to: http://ruralmusiciansforum.org