THE four Bermuda Menuhin Foundation teachers who are performing in the Bermuda Festival tonight and tomorrow night are so excited they are embarrassed at how often they use the word "excited" in an interview.

Ros Hanson, viola, Melissa O'Brien, first violin, Alison Johnstone, cello, and Caroline Gledhill, violin, are performing as a quartet and with concert pianist Mandy Wong, who is also performing piano solos.

"We're quite excited because I don't think Menuhin has played in public in this way for a long time," says Miss Hanson. "Just to be in the Festival with all these prestigious performers is quite exciting."

Throughout the interview there are nods and affirmative noises from all the musicians.

It was hard to keep track of who said what, especially when talking about the music as they completed each other's thoughts and sentences.

"When we were looking for something to complement the piano quartet (performed with Miss Wong), we all wanted to do another Mozart so we played bits and pieces from his and chose the . We all liked it immediately. It's very balanced between all the instruments."

They will also play Alexander Borodin's . Miss Johnstone was definitely the one who said: "It's very nice for the cello but in the same way it has moments for all the instruments."

Miss Hanson says they talked about learning it years ago.

"It's an audience pleaser," adds Miss O'Brien, "the Nocturne is very famous, a lot of people will recognise the tune."

"We're full-time teachers, so it's nice to play as a chamber ensemble," says Miss Johnstone, as one of the reasons for all their excitement. Miss O'Brien adds another: "I think being able to share with local audiences, children included, what we can do besides teach."

"With the Menuhin Youth Orchestra I've talked a lot about communicating with each other and if they come to see us play they will see what we mean," says Miss Hanson. "Because that's what chamber music is about ? communicating."

It's easy for the teachers to tell their students they want a certain kind of sound but there are not very many places in Bermuda where they can hear a high standard of music.

It's one of the reasons they are excited to be playing with Miss Wong.

"It's nice to play with a professional to keep our own playing at a high standard," says Miss Hanson.

It also makes a nice change for them, says Miss Johnstone. "It's nice to play with Mandy because we don't usually play with a pianist, we usually play with strings or an orchestra."

She says all of the Menuhin musicians are extremely busy: "We tend to play in anything that requires string players."

Miss O'Brien adds: "We're encouraged by the trustees to support any music making in Bermuda including the Philharmonic, pantomime, Heritage Month concerts, school concerts and shows ? on top of full-time teaching."

So are all the extra practices they have had to fit in for the Festival performance worth it? A chorus of yesses and nods erupt from the musicians as the excitement bubbles over even more.

"We can't wait," says Miss O'Brien. "We have good friends and supporters and we're excited about playing for them."

Miss Johnstone agrees: "And it's good for our students to see their teachers performing . . ."

"To a high standard," adds Miss Gledhill.

"We were joking that we'd be sick of each other," says Miss Hanson, of all the extra time they have spent together, "but it hasn't happened; we're actually working closer together." All of them murmur agreement, laugh and nod as she speaks.

"We're really looking for more opportunities to do this, it has inspired us to perform together even more."

Bermudian pianist Mandy Wong, who is studying at the New England Conservatory of Music, shares the enthusiasm.

"I'm really excited, it's always interesting to play with a new group and to come back to Bermuda and do it.

"I'm really excited about all the pieces but there's one piece in particular that I know has never been performed in Bermuda before. It was composed in 1988 by Lee Hyla who was head of the composition department at the New England Conservatory of Music. The piece is called . It has some really eclectic influences ? punk rock, experimental jazz, classical music ? and you hear all of it in one five-minute piece."

Miss Wong is animated as she speaks about it with her hands flying and her eyes shining.

"It was written to be performed alongside regular classical music as a third party, so I'll be doing two Brahms ballads with it. I think this piece is really going to shake things up in the show."

It will be performed in the Saturday night performance."

Tonight the first piece that comes to her mind that she is really excited about is, from by J.S. Bach, transcribed by F. Bosoni.

"This is just one of the greatest and best loved pieces in the piano repertoire. I performed it one other time in Bermuda (at a solo recital last May at St. Theresa's Cathedral).

"That's when someone from the Bermuda Festival said they were interested in having me perform. It is dynamically and physically and emotionally expressive. It's asks you to be a bridge between two different periods ? Bach's Baroque experiments and Bosoni's Romantic concert interpretation."

The same Mozart piano quartet will be performed on both nights.

Miss O'Brien says she has been waiting to play this piece of music for ten years.

"When we found out we were doing this we spoke with Mandy and she was happy to do it too."

Ms Wong says: "It is for piano, violin, viola and cello. It was one of the first piano quartets to include viola and to ask that all pieces play as equal voices. There's a huge variety of instrumental colours and passing forth of ideas."

That sounds like it might pretty well sum up the whole concert.

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