Leonard Morris Taylor
1957 - 1992
Leonard Taylor, violist, started study in music at an early age, raised in the well-known musical family of Morris and Elaine Myers Taylor. Although active as a performing musician, Elaine made her role as mother the priority in her life. She nurtured her four children both spiritually and musically, sparing no effort to be the best parent and teacher possible. That dedication, with support and assistance from Morris, their father, created an atmosphere in the home where the children's musical gifts flourished.
By the time Leonard was eight, he was practicing for an hour each on a string instrument and the piano each day, and then practicing with his siblings in a string quartet for a third hour. For the next six years, the precocious playing of the children and the excellence of their work as a string quartet stunned audiences and music critics alike.
The Palo Alto Times described the response to the Taylor String Quartet, following a performance of the family for the annual conference of the Music Teachers' Association of California in 1971: "When 300 music teachers rise to give a performing group a standing ovation, the players can be sure they have received quite a tribute."
In 1978, Elaine Taylor took a three week tour with her children, traveling as The Taylor String Quartet from California to Texas, to Mexico, and then to Washington, D.C.. At the University of Monterey, the audience responded to their concert with a prolonged standing ovation, shouts of bravo, and a cascade of flowers on the stage. Tragically, in April of that year, she was in a car accident that claimed her life.
A year later, Leonard graduated from Andrews University with a B.Mus. degree. Just prior to his death in Orlando, Florida, in March 1992 he had been working as an office assistant in a music store and residing in Buchanan, Michigan.
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