the continuing surge of interest in music on the Island.

The now eight-strong team of teachers are offering tuition in piano, strings, organ, all the woodwind instruments, and voice, as well as tuition in theory and composition.

Director Mr. Graham Garton says that music and the teaching of music throughout Bermuda now has a much higher profile. A total of 353 students attend the Dunbarton School, ranging from age three to 84. "In fact,'' he says, "I have a great-grandmother who comes along to me for theory lessons and she just did Grade V!'' So far, there is no tuition available in brass. But, promises Mr. Garton, that will be rectified in the near future.

The three newcomers, who recently arrived in Bermuda, will be teaching piano and violin. All are enthusiastic about the level of interest and the generally high standards of musicianship on the Island.

Says violin teacher Mr. Charles Li, "There is a technically high standard amongst the people I have played along with since I arrived here. There are a whole lot of specialty teachers who are very good, both as teachers and performers.'' Canadian Mrs. Margaret Fox was recently married to Bermudian Bruce Fox, also a music teacher who made his local debut as a musical director when he took on the Gilbert & Sullivan Society's production of The Boy Friend two years ago.

"We actually met at Mount Allison University eight years ago,'' she explains.

"But it wasn't until last January that I made my first visit to Bermuda.'' Mrs. Fox, who teaches piano, went on to do her Master's degree at Canada's Western University. Now, in addition to her teaching, she expects to be spending a fair proportion of her time helping her husband with future shows.

She has already worked as coach piano for various musical productions in Canada.

Her greatest love -- piano-wise -- is the music of Chopin and Debussy and the Romantic era in general. "Chopin wrote specifically for the piano -- and I love the sensuality of Ravel, as well. He seems to mirror the whole Romantic movement, the literature and the paintings of Monet and the Impressionists. I like a lot of the moderns, who were also influenced by the Romantics.'' A feature of the Dunbarton School is its commitment to the Suzuki method of teaching. While full tuition is offered in traditional methods, there are now three teachers who are qualified to teach what is generally accepted as being a revolutionary method of teaching young children.

Mr. Li, who teaches the Suzuki and traditional methods, observes: "There's a waiting list for Suzuki classes, it really seems to be catching fire!'' Although children are able to start music at a much earlier age when using this method, Mr. Li believes that it works equally well for students of any age. "It's attractive in that it's family-oriented. It demands a lot of parent involvement, so parents and children learn together,'' he says.

Mr. Li, who will be appearing in concert with Jane Farge in December, studied at Oberlin College in Ohio and obtained his Master's from the University of Southern Illinois.

"Charles studied with the head of Suzuki violin in America, Professor John Kendall, who introduced Charles to us during one of his visits here,'' says Mr. Garton. He notes that Prof. Kendall will be returning to Bermuda in November as part of the Suzuki Association's annual four-day workshop in piano and violin at Saltus Junior School.

Also, Mr. Li will also be teaching the viola and playing that instrument for the Bermuda Philharmonic Orchestra.

Asked about his favourite composer, Mr. Li admits that, as a violinist, it is "the heart and sound of Bach and Beethoven who keep coming back''.

As with super-star violinist Nigel Kennedy, jazz fascinates Charles Li. He says that he would like to sit in with some groups in Bermuda.

Surprisingly, he is not alarmed by the effect of Bermuda's humidity on his violin which, he adds matter-of-factly, is a new instrument -- "the no-name brands are really very good today''.

In Minnesota, he says, the weather adversely affected his instruments more.

The vast climate extremes, with periods of acute dryness, were more dangerous for wooden instruments than Bermuda's dampness.

Ms Mary-Ann Swallum, whom Mr. Garton describes as "a very experienced teacher'', will in January make her Bermuda debut at a solo piano recital. One of her problems as a newcomer to the Island, however, is obtaining regular access to a grand piano.

After graduating from university in Los Angeles, she obtained her Master's from Northwestern University. After running her own studio for a number of years in Illinois, she has spent the last 15 years directing the music preparatory department at the College of St. Scholaskica in Duluth, Minnesota.

A registered teacher/trainer for the Suzuki Association of the Americas in Piano, Ms Swallum has studied privately with Daniel Pollack, the only American pianist ever asked to serve as one of the judges at the famous Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.

Her taste in music is broad. "I like everything I play,'' she says. But she admits to a special fondness for Scarlatti, Bach, Beethoven, Mozart "and the moderns''.

Her first impression of Bermuda was that parents were anxious to give their children the very best. "The children themselves are very courteous, but they are open with me, and I think that will make for good working relationships.'' In addition to his work at the Dunbarton School, Mr. Garton is busy rehearsing for the City of Hamilton Bicentennial Concert to be held by the Philharmonic Society in the Anglican Cathedral on Sunday, November 7.

As always, the Society's director has come up with an appropriate programme.

The major work on the programme will be The Bermudas, composed by Iain Hamilton, who has been invited to attend the performance.

"He is a very substantial composer,'' says Mr. Garton. He explains that the work, for orchestra, chorus and baritone solo (to be sung by Peter Nash), was commissioned by the BBC in 1957 and was last performed by the Scottish National Orchestra and Chorus in 1973.

"This will be the second time that Iain Hamilton and I have appeared on the same concert programme. When we were at the Royal Academy in 1949, my string quartet followed his clarinet quintet. We haven't met since!'' Also on the bill will be Haydn's Symphony 99, which was written 100 years ago.

The Weber Horn Concerto in E minor will also be played. It was written in 1815, the year in which Hamilton was declared the capital of Bermuda.

Completing the programme will be Beethoven's overture, The Consecration of the House, and Graham Garton's own fanfare, Quo Fata Ferunt.

TRIO OF TUNEFUL TEACHERS -- New faces at the Dunbarton School of Music are teachers, from left, Ms Mary-Ann Swallum and Mrs. Margaret Fox, both of whom teach piano, and Mr. Charles Li, who specialises in violin and viola.