TWIN FALLS — Students from Canyon Ridge High School had the chance to work alongside professional musicians Laura Vincent Vizzuti, a pianist, and Allen Vizzutti, a trumpeter, in a music workshop.
Laura and Allen live the dream of many musicians, by being able to travel the world and perform for all sorts of people.
“Music is worth wild because it’s communication and it’s universal," said Allen. "Having been in 70 countries so far, some of them many times, it always works to help people enjoy life and to make them feel better.”
While the couple mainly travels to perform, they also set time aside to work with students that practice music. During this workshop, students were given the opportunity to perform a piece of music they have been working on to gain feedback from the Vizzutti's and learn what they could do better.
“There may be a handful of people who want to do that or at least take music classes at their university, and if I can inspire them to do that, that would mean a lot to me,” said Laura.
This workshop was even more sentimental for Laura because she grew up in the nearby town of Filer. She said was thrilled to be back in her own backyard and work with the local area students.
“If you live in a big city and spend time in Tokyo and stuff like that, this feels like a smallish town, but there is a diligence and discipline here that’s pretty remarkable,” said Laura.
Since they tend to cover a large scale of technicalities like timing, pitch, tempo, and dynamics when conducting these workshops, the Vessutti's are always hopeful that students can walk away with at least one bit of new knowledge.
“It would make me really happy if the students were inspired to look at sort of a broader view of their piece in terms of a certain emotion, instead of getting wired in all the little finger stuff," Laura said.
“I always say one thing, no matter who they are, and it’s an important point that I make in the beginning, and the end, and that is to keep music in your lives whatever it takes," Allen said. "Whatever small or large amount. ”
For the students who got to participate in the workshop, it was an exciting experience for themselves and especially their peers and being able to see them grow.
“It was really cool to see them start out with this piece that was good, but then they went through it, and it got a whole better, I could tell, it just sounded nicer,” sophomore Bennett Lamb said.
For anyone who would like to see the Vesutti's in action, they will be guest soloists for the Magic Valley Symphony this Friday night. The performance will be streamed through the symphony's website with streaming starting at 7:15 p.m. and the orchestra starting at 7:30 p.m.
