Michael Taibleson, a shareholder and leader of the Employee Benefits Team in Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek S.C.’s Milwaukee office, was blown away by the trumpet at age 4 and has been mastering the instrument ever since.
When Taibleson’s brother, David, won a childhood bet and brought home his friend’s grandfather’s World War I era bugle, Taibleson took to the instrument naturally. He spent four years begging his parents for trumpet lessons in St. Louis, where he grew up.
By his mid-teens, Taibleson had purchased a $600 Bach Stradivarius Trumpet that he still plays today. In addition to taking private lessons, he studied music at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Taibleson just completed his 15th season with the Knightwind Ensemble and also regularly performs with the Concord Chamber Orchestra.
In September, Taibleson will travel with Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun to blow a horn called the shofar during a dedication ceremony for a sculpture at a Holocaust museum in Krakow, Poland.
Taibleson’s music is a core element of his life, he said.
“It’s just intrinsically important to me,” Taibleson said. “It is a big part of who I am.”
