At White House, music to Michelle Obama's ears

The White House had the feel of a music conservatory Wednesday afternoon, as 120 high school and middle school students from around the country – classical musicians all – attended master classes with some of the top names in the business.

Yours truly, serving as the print pooler for first lady Michelle Obama, got to dip into each class: First, Grammy-award winning violinist (and heart-throb) Joshua Bell, in jeans and shirt-tails, met with some 30 teenage violinists in the Map Room.

“Hey, everybody. Whaddaya think, being at the White House?”

“Woo-hoo!” the students replied.

Bell lamented that he now seems to be most famous for a Washington Post experiment he took part in almost three years ago, in which he played the violin on the street – to see if anyone would notice that he was a world-class violinist. (A few people did.)

“I guess any publicity is good publicity,” he said. “I made $38 in about 40 minutes. The good news is that I didn’t have to give my manager 20 percent.”

Next, to the Diplomatic Room, for 27-year-old cellist Alisa Weilerstein – called by New York magazine, “arguably, Yo-Yo Ma’s heiress apparent" – and a roomful of cellists. The group played the prelude to one of the Bachianas Brasileiras, by Heitor Villa-Lobos.

Then it was off to the Blue Room, for virtuoso classical guitarist Sharon Isbin and a roomful of guitarists. One young player performed a piece, and she then coached him on body position and other techniques. “Do you know the formula for a more sweet, dolce sound?” she asked. It’s all about where you strum: “Divide the string in half.”

Finally, we went to the East Room, where the lively and accomplished pianist Awadagin Pratt was performing the Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor by Bach (arranged by Awadagin Pratt) for piano students.

A moment of disclosure: Your correspondent ran into an old friend, Martin Goldsmith, a classical music announcer for Sirius/XM Radio, who was there for the network’s recording of the event. He tipped me off to what the performers were playing. Sirius/XM will air Wednesday night's full-dress concert over the weekend.

Then it was off to the State Dining Room, where FLOTUS em-ceed the awarding of the annual Coming Up Taller Awards, which recognize outstanding after-school and out-of-school programs in the arts and humanities. The awards, an initiative of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, were started in 1998. Many of the programs reach at-risk youth, who then often end up doing better in school and going to college.

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