A fundraising concert for the Steinbach Arts Council left audience members mesmerized, speechless and full of applause with a standing ovation by the end.

Piano and violin duo Roy Tan and Rosemary Siemens both started playing young, improvised while learning to play, were involved in music at church and studied music.

Tan explains he started playing at the age of four in Singapore, where he was born, and was improvising from the start.  At the age of ten he moved to Vancouver and played in the church.  He notes he quit piano twice but went back to playing and received his Bachelor of Music at the University of British Columbia.

Siemens notes her Mom was a music teacher and feels it was her drive and determination that made her a violinist.  Siemens grew up in Manitoba and says she started playing violin at the age of three.  She received her Undergrad from the University of British Columbia, Masters in Miami, an Artist Diploma back in Vancouver and spent her summers in Switzerland studying.

"It's funny, we came from such different places but essentially got the same upbringing.  In the church, playing hymns and improvising," adds Siemens.  "And that's why I think we feel so in sync with each other on stage, we have that same kind of pacing, same kind of feeling with music."

Siemens explains she and Tan first met in 2007 during a concert at Walt Disney World, started touring together and officially started their own duo in 2012. 

Between Tan and Siemens they have performed at Carnegie Hall, St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, the Egyptian Consulate in Washington, DC, at Donald Trump's Mar-A-Lago Estate in Palm Beach, Hong Kong, Miss America Pageant, the 2008 Beijing and 2010 Vancouver Olympics as well as Hockey Night In Canada. 

"It was actually spectacular," adds Siemens, referring to the sound in the Sistine Chapel.  "It was probably eight seconds of reverb, just unbelievable.  I was asked to be the first violinist.  They had never allowed any instrumentalists in there, it was always just unaccompanied choir usually.  So it was just an honour to be the first violinist to play there and just the sound was incredible."

Siemens adds when she was in grade nine her English teacher asked the class to write an essay on their goals and aspirations, Siemens remembers writing about how cool it would be to play at Carneigie Hall and to date has played there four times.  She feels it's the mentality that nothing is impossible and the knowledge that she can dream big.

Siemens says she wants people to leave their shows feeling they had a great time, knew a lot of the songs, were a part of the show and became their friends.  She adds Manitoba is her favorite place to play and for both herself and Tan, when they perform in Manitoba the fans are so appreciative it feels like their coming home.  She notes Tan has been inducted as an honourary Mennonite and when in Manitoba instead of Roy Tan, his name is Roy Toews.

Tan and Siemens have a great on-stage chemistry and their personalities give the audience a glance into their fun-loving nature.

When asked about her sparkly dresses Siemens says it started with her Grandma who was addicted to bling, then her Mom and now herself.  She adds her violin has been named 'Sparkle' and during their Christmas show last year when Tan was away for two weeks she name the orchestra 'The Sparkling Symphony', giving Tan a surprise when he returned.  Tan notes Siemens has been trying to get him to wear sequins but feels he needs to be the counter-bling on stage.

At a Roy and Rosemary concert there is the set list but since they both love to improvise they add a lot of that into the show as well.    During a show they will ask the audience for song requests with the stipulation that if they don't know the song, the audience member has to sing it for them and they also write a song for the audience based off of ideas or imagery.  

Wednesday nights concert had them create a song from sparkly ice, snow flakes, farm animals, windmills, homelessness and a haze in the sky after a forest fire.  When they were creating the portion of the song for farm animals Siemens gave her best impression of farm animals and other animals which prompted Tan to ask 'exactly what farm are you from?'  Once again displaying that on-stage chemistry and fun-loving personality.

Siemens notes they are working on their second full length album right now and are also creating a show where they're the soloists within an orchestra which Tan has orchestrated.  She adds they want to do a big cross-Canada tour and hopes to bring it to Steinbach.