Students at the Bermuda School of Music recently had the chance to chat with some of America’s most gifted young string musicians.The Fenice Quartet of Chicago, award-winning students in the Music Institute of Chicago Academy’s programme for gifted precollege musicians, visited the Island recently.They came here with their teachers, Roland and Almita Vamos.“I am 17 and I started playing violin when I was four,” said violinist Alexandra Alvardo Switala. “My mother would take me and my brother to a lot of children’s concerts. I saw older kids playing and that inspired me to start playing.”While here, the group helped their teacher give master viola and cello classes to Bermuda School of Music students. They also performed in a concert held at the Wesley Methodist Church.David France, a professor at the Bermuda School of Music, said he was pleased to see his students enthusiastic reaction.“All the schools on the Island were invited to the concert,” he said. “The idea was to inspire young Bermudian children to dream dreams bigger than they would normally dream.“Basically, we want to expand their vision of what is possible. Hopefully, the next generation will put down their guns and play musical instruments. This is a positive event saying we don’t have to do this [violence].”Violinist Clayton Penrose-Whitmore, 18, advised young kids just starting out to not get frustrated easily.“Even if you do, don’t just say ‘I don’t want to do this’ and stop. Keep it going. Give it some time to see if you like it or not. When I was little a lot of times I didn’t like it a lot. All my friends were outside playing and I was inside practising.”Alexandra said there were definitely times when she wanted to quit as a child, because practising took up so much time.“My mother said I could quit when I was 18,” she said. “It was my goal that I was going to grow up and get to 18 and quit. I am glad she did say 18, because I don’t want to quit now.”A Mexican-American, she won Detroit’s Sphinx competition for minority musicians this year.The win allows her to play with several famous orchestras in the United States, including the New World Symphony Orchestra in Florida and the Buffalo Philharmonics.She was also the third place winner in the 2011 Blount-Slawson Young Artists Competition in Alabama, a competition also won by Clayton.Cello player Alex Hersh, 17, comes from a long line of musicians stretching back to his great grandparents. He started playing music when he was five.“When I started playing I hardly ever practised,” he said. “I grew up in a suburb of Illinois. I wanted to be just like the other kids who had dads who threw the ball around with them at night.“My parents were always inside practising. I didn’t think that was cool. I moved to Chicago when I was nine and it changed things and my priorities shifted.”Alex has won many awards including the 2010 Society of American Musicians award.His only regret now is that he wasted so much of his time trying to play football, as all it resulted in was making him a mediocre football player.Leah Ferguson, 18, also had parents who were musicians.“They are very encouraging of my musical career,” she said. “They make me practise. I am going to the Cleveland Institute of Music next year.“I am very interested in orchestral playing. I am going to give my first master class here. It is just a learning experience. I play cello, but I played the violin first.”