Shana Liu, the grand prize winner of the Bill Riley Talent Show at the Iowa State Fair, has a holiday connection to Stuart.

 

Liu, who is a piano-playing senior at Des Moines’ Roosevelt High School, says her musically-inclined family has made an annual tradition of performing at Stuart’s Saints Center around Christmas-time. “I think my sister, Grace, who’s 27 years-old now was in contact with Tom Smull and Liz Gilman, and she and her school started doing the concert series. In the end, it started morphing into more of a sister thing with Nina, Grace and me, rather than Grace’s school. Eventually, Grace stopped playing violin and then Nina took over the tradition. Nina has been doing it for a few years, and she says when she stops playing she’ll have me take over for her. So, there really is this legacy with our sisters and the Stuart Saints Center coming together each Christmas to play this really cool concert.”

Liu adds the Saints Center is one of her favorite places to perform. “It’s just the most gorgeous church I’ve ever seen. It’s so unique in its history — I love coming back every year. I hear the story of its history every year, and looking at its architecture — it’s really special. The center also gives you this really cool acoustic environment for a string quartet, and that’s not given in many other churches, or venues.”

 

Liu was awarded an $8,000 cash prize for winning the talent show. She’ll tell us more about her performance and family connection to Stuart today on Let’s Talk Guthrie County. It airs during the 9 a.m., noon and 5 p.m. hours on K107.9 and www.raccoonvalleyradio.com.