Two piano students of Rose Weichert of Caledonia earned national piano playing awards recently and they will be featured in a national piano magazine.

Laura Kruse, 18, and Melissa Wray, 16, were awarded Ten-Year National pins and personally engraved Paderewski Gold Medals from the National Guild of Piano Teachers for meeting specified requirements set out by the Guild.

The two satisfactorily performed programs of ten memorized pieces before Guild music critics annually for ten years. The program included required musicianship phases such as scales, chords, arpeggios and transposition.

They will be among those who will have their names and photographs featured in the winter issue of Piano Guild Notes, a nationally distributed magazine published quarterly by the Guild, headquartered in Austin, TX.

There were only eight students in Minnesota and 205 in the nation to earn such awards last year, the latest year in which published results are available. The numbers for 2004 are expected to be similar.

The Guild is an organization comprised of piano teachers who reside throughout the nation and whose students participate in the auditions.

Local students audition at the LaCrosse Public Library. The auditions are open to students of all ages and abilities, but they must be studying with a Guild member.

Lauraís parents are Kevin and Karen Kruse of Eitzen. Melissaís parents are Charlie and Debbie Wray of Caledonia.

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