Perlman quartet performs for Haile Middle students

MANATEE COUNTY — Violist Laura Seay doesn’t see music as something to appreciated as much as something to be relished with every emotion.

“It should be pure enjoyment,” she said minutes before stepping onto the stage at Haile Middle School with three other musicians from The Perlman Music Program Oct. 30. “We really love what we do.”

The group, called the LK String Quartet, traveled from New York last week to visit schools in Manatee and Sarasota counties through the Perlman Music Program/Suncoast, a nonprofit intended to provide stability and funding for a permanent Sarasota Winter Residency for the Perlman Music Program.

Seay, a Juilliard graduate student at Teacher’s College at Columbia University, and Juilliard students Sean Lee, Jordan Han and Areta Zhulla spent the day performing alongside orchestra students, playing musical games and answering students’ questions.

The quartet ended their visit with an educational performance in the school’s cafetorium, educating Haile’s students about the instruments on which they played, technique and other aspects of music.

“The purpose of the (quartet’s) visit was to stimulate a love of music in our students,” Haile Principal Janet Kerley said

Last week’s performances at Haile and other area schools marked the launch of The Perlman Music Program/Suncoast’s new educational outreach program, which will provide for the LK Quartet to spend three weeklong residencies in select schools.

The Perlman Music Program/Suncoast is working to develop its curriculum-based programming, which will serve a total of four middle schools in both Sarasota and Manatee counties as well as their feeder elementary schools in its initial year.

The quartet is expected to return to select schools again in January and in March.

For more information about the program, visit the organization’s Web site at www.perlmanmusicprogramsuncoast.org.

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].