Obamas send musical message

Classical music took over the White House on Wednesday as Barack and Michelle Obama used two concerts and a series of workshops for young musicians to send a clear message that the music of the masters isn't just for stuffed shirts.

The president said at an evening concert that classical music is "lifting hearts and spurring imaginations" across the nation, and is something to be enjoyed by aficionados and the uninitiated alike.

The concert featured some of today's most important young and vibrant classical musicians: violinist Joshua Bell, classical guitarist Sharon Isbin, cellist Alisa Weilerstein and pianist Awadagin Pratt. And the superstars teamed with some youngsters.

Pratt sat on a piano bench next to 14-year-old Lucy Hattemer of Cincinnati to perform a Schubert duet on the East Room's Steinway during the afternoon concert. Weilerstein, 27, was upstaged by her eight-year-old partner, Sujari Britt, a student at New York's Manhattan School of Music, on a duet by Italian composer Luigi Boccherini.

Bell, performing in shirt sleeves and jeans, introduced a Paganini duet with Isbin at the afternoon concert by telling the audience that the Italian violinist was "sort of like the Beatles of his time."

At the evening concert, Obama tried to put the audience at ease by revealing that even President Kennedy wasn't always sure when to clap during classical performances and had to get a signal from his social secretary.

"Fortunately, I have Michelle to tell me when to applaud," he joked. "The rest of you are on your own."

The day's events were part of a White House Music Series that also has featured concerts of jazz, Latin and country music.

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