THIS weekend, the Bermuda Suzuki Association will introduce the Sphinx Alumni Quartet to the island.

With each member a past winner in the Sphinx Competition ? a prestigious Michigan-based contest designed to promote classical music within African-American and Latino communities across the United States ? the Quartet is representative of all that organisation founder Aaron P. Dworkin has achieved in his struggle for diversity in music.

HE Sphinx Alumni Quartet will grace centre stage at the Ruth Seaton James Auditorium for the Performing Arts this weekend. For those not familiar with the Quartet, its members represent an elite group of young American performers.

"The Sphinx Organisation is a non-profit which has as its main goal the competition they have every year for African-American and Latino artists," explained Chas Arnold, chairman of the group bringing the performers in, the Bermuda Suzuki Association.

"Our goal is to promote music education, particularly through the Suzuki method, but also in such a way that we encompass every music student on the island. We try to embrace diversity in music. That's the same idea behind the Sphinx Organisation.

"So we thought that by partnering ourselves with Sphinx, to bring this group down to perform a concert, would be an excellent way to promote and celebrate diversity in music here in Bermuda."

Mr. Dworkin founded the Sphinx Organisation in 1996 as a means of overcoming the cultural stereotype attached to classical musicians. Having studied violin from the age of five through university level, he repeatedly found himself in orchestras where he was either the only minority, or one of only a handful.

As a means of addressing that situation, he established the Sphinx Organisation to help young African-American and Latino youths gain an appreciation for classical music and the classical music profession.

The Organisation held its first competition in 1998. Now an annual event, it is open to all junior high, high school and college-age African American and Latino string players and declares winners in two categories ? the junior division pits musicians under the age of 18 against each other; the senior division does the same for those age 26 and under.

Lending support to the Sphinx's many programmes is an honorary committee comprised of well-known artists ? among them Itzhak Perlman, Branford Marsalis, Yo-Yo Ma, Andr? Previn and Nigel Kennedy. The group's boards of advisers and directors ring equally impressively, as does the calibre of its Sphinx Competition winners.

Now in its seventh year running, the competition is just as renowned for teaching young musicians as it is for selecting those with exceptional promise.

Held in Ann Arbor and Detroit, Michigan, it "offers young black and Latino classical string players a chance to compete under the guidance of an internationally renowned panel of judges and to perform with established professional musicians in a competition setting. Its primary goals are to encourage, develop and recognise classical music talent in the Black and Latino communities," explained Tania McGee, the group's Director of Youth Programmes.

"It's gone from strength to strength each year. The calibre of performers involved is the very best ? our first-place winner in the senior division goes on to perform with at least 20 different (professional) orchestras during that year; our junior division winner goes on to perform with ten different orchestras. If they weren't the best, they would not be able to follow with the orchestras."

violin instructor, Mr. Arnold agreed with Ms McGee, citing as proof the calibre of the orchestras Sphinx alumni regularly perform with. "Winners of this competition go on to perform with world-class orchestras such as the Seattle Symphony, the New Jersey Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony; to solo with orchestras like the Detroit Symphony ? some of the major symphonies in the United States.

"And the group that's coming down is comprised of first-place winners. They've performed with groups like the Boston Pops, the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, the Salt Lake Symphony. They're all fairly accomplished musicians and they've come together to perform for the island at Ruth Seaton James."

The Quartet formed two years ago, at the request of four former competition winners ? Bryan Hernandez-Luch, Gareth Johnson, Carl St. Jacques and Jared Snyder. For the Bermuda performances, however, Mr. Hernandez-Luch, 26, and Mr. Johnson, 18, will be joined by Christopher Jenkins, 25, and 27-year-old Tahirah Whittington.

"The members vary depending on availability," Ms McGee explained. "Tahirah, for example, is not the normal cellist. Normally it would be Jared Snyder but he's attending a festival and couldn't make this. We try to keep it the same but we have a substitute for each of the players; for times when we feel they need to go to (a particular) event.

"We formed (the Quartet) because the kids wanted to play together. Most of the time, when they come into the competition, they end up forming friendships that last a lifetime. When they like playing together they want to do stuff like that and basically, they asked: 'Is it possible we could form a quartet?'

"We asked a couple of local groups that normally help our players, they were totally happy to try it out, and we did. They started here in Detroit, and then they played for the Arts League of Michigan and everybody really liked the combination of the players."

How the Sphinx Alumni became tied to Bermuda is another matter. Mr. Arnold grew up in Michigan and was familiar with the organisation but had never seen the group perform until last year. His first thought, they were brilliant; his second, the fine performance they could give in Bermuda.

"I watched them here in Bermuda on PBS. They were such a fantastic group of players. We try to do these types of educational performances each spring and I thought bringing the Sphinx performers down would be an excellent (idea)."

The violinist said he sent an e-mail and waited for the Organisation to respond.

"They said they'd been putting together this Sphinx Quartet of past winners and after a little while, we hammered out details and were able to bring them down for this event."

According to Ms McGee, Mr. Arnold was not alone in his quest ? a huge part of the draw being that theirs is the only organisation promoting "diversity in classical music".

"We get approached quite a lot," she said. "Everybody tends to call here before they ask anywhere else ? especially larger organisations."

She said the group was "most definitely" looking forward to the trip to Bermuda and most Sphinx players were familiar with the Suzuki method of teaching.

"When we had our competition earlier this year, we asked how many people studied under the Suzuki method. Everybody put their hands up. Eighteen of them and they all started with Suzuki.

"But this is our first quartet with Sphinx. At present, we're trying to get it recognised more on a professional level. For that reason I would go anywhere with them if it's going to bring visibility. Any place that we can go outside of the US is a blessing."

The group will perform two concerts on the island. The first, tomorrow night, will see each member of the Quartet play an unaccompanied solo during the first half before playing as a group for the rest of the evening.

Sunday's matin?e will take a different format ? a short concert directed largely towards music students on the island, after which Quartet members will entertain any questions they might have.

While an actual exchange is not in the works at the moment, Mr. Arnold said it was something that might be worked out to the benefit of local students in the future.

"I think it would be a great idea. I'm hoping that the Sphinx Organisation will enjoy their visit here. I'm hoping that we can provide them with a nice audience so they can really appreciate Bermuda and we can turn that into some sort of cultural exchange. Especially, for Bermuda I think it's a great organisation for us to hook up with in future events."

The Sphinx Alumni Quartet is only one of many youth programmes run by the Sphinx Organisation.

The group is to perform tomorrow at 7.30 p.m. and Sunday at 4 p.m., at the Ruth Seaton James Centre for the Performing Arts. Tickets, $25 for adults; $5 for 18 years and under, are available at www.BermudaRes.com and at the City Hall box office, today, between 11.30 a.m. and 2 p.m. For more information, please telephone 505-4287.

To learn more about the Sphinx Organisation, visit .