The Music Lesson

Weaving together the music of Bach, with memories of the Bosnian War and the universal conflicts between teacher and student, The Music Lesson tells the story of Irena and her husband Ivan, two musicians who escaped the war in Sarajevo to start a new life in Pittsburgh. When Ivan meets Mrs. Johnson, a recently divorced single mother, at the local grocery store, he brings home two new students: 10-year-old Eddie, a talented violin student, and the unwilling Kat, his 14-year-old sister. While her passion for music and the students she taught helped Irena survive the war, she now stands torn between Maja, the 12-year-old piano prodigy she left behind in Sarajevo, and Kat, the bright but angry American teenager who wants to learn, but resists her teaching. Shifting elegantly from past to present and resonating with powerful music, this is the tale of two countries, two families, two generations and the ways they teach and heal each other. A winner of the IUPUI Bonderman Award and a Carbonell Award for Best Production. "First-rate family drama… We hear what it's like to be a teenager in a civil war…" (Philadelphia City Paper) "…a play of vital theatricality, rich in vivid and resonant images." (Arcade Suburban Publications, Pennsylvania) "…a beautifully told story about healing and hope." (Main Line Times, Pennsylvania)