azure skies and the smell of freshly cut grass.

But perhaps the most striking feature of all was a 25-year-old man dressed in black jeans, red T-shirt and docksiders, standing in the middle of a lawn massaging a Guanarius violin made in 1721.

There was a distinct element of sophistication in the way he caressed his instrument as he looked out over Saltus Island, surrounded only by petunias and hibiscus plants that seemed to sweep and wave as if they were dancing to the tune.

Xiao-Dong Wang is indeed a wandering minstrel whose talent has taken him to Japan, Australia, the United States, Poland, England and the former Soviet Union.

He visited Bermuda for the first time last year and brought audiences to their feet with his rendition of the Bruch Violin Concerto.

Tonight and tomorrow evening he will be playing Mendelssohn's popular E minor Concerto.

Xiao-Dong, who was born in China but has lived in New York for the past nine years, is a two time winner of the Yehudi Menuhin competition.

"This is a beautiful country,'' he said. "I just love it here. When I came last year it was very humid and I had so much trouble with the humidity. I was breaking strings because the instrument was sweating.'' At the tender age of four, Xiao-Dong began playing the violin under his father who was a concert master of the Shanghai Symphony. He was just 16 when he was playing the Prokoviev Second Concerto with Menuhin as the conductor.

In China he is already a star, so famous that his return to Shanghai was celebrated by a day off for the entire city.

Surprisingly, Xiao-Dong says he enjoys the intermissions the best when he is performing, because that is where his audience really shows their appreciation.

"I was happy when Marjorie (Pettit) asked me to come back,'' he said. "Two concerts in one week is not bad.'' Xiao-Dong, a student at the famed Juilliard School where he earned a Masters Degree in music, said classical musicians were having a hard time making a living at their craft because the public is uneducated about the genre.

Consequently, his audiences tend to be older because the younger generation on the whole do not listen to classical music in large numbers.

Still, he refuses to be pessimistic.

"I see myself as an artist who is Violinist returns to Island recreating a tradition that is almost lost,'' he said. "And it's great. I'm not where I want to be right now. I still want to do more traveling. My goal right now is to play with the Chicago Symphony. They are really a class act.'' Xiao-Dong will give two concerts at St. John's Church. His opening concert is tonight and the second performance is tomorrow. Both events start at 8 p.m.

Admission is $20 on both nights.