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March 28, 2010 | Posted by Lauren

I recently went on an educational tour with my band, The Section Quartet, to promote not only playing string instruments in the public school system, but rocking out on string instruments! Playing rock music on my electric, blinged-out viola is absolutely one of my favorite things to do and I was really excited to also give away a few BB mutes to a few lucky students at the schools we visited in the Midwest.  I really love showing students that you don't have to play only classical music on your violin, viola or cello.  I think it's so important that young musicians have an outlet to perform the music that they're interested in and don't feel like the instrument they play has to dictate the type of music that they play. 

Our first stop on the tour was Lake Forest Academy in my hometown of Lake Forest, Illinois.  The band sent the music to a couple of tunes ahead of time and the students prepared Radiohead and Coldplay songs to perform with us at a show later that night.  I was really impressed by the lone violist in the orchestra, Ena. We worked together that afternoon on the songs and I had a blast playing with her.  I've included a photo of both her and a violinist named Lauren with their new Baroque Bling mutes. We also visited three other High Schools in the Midwest and I was equally impressed with all the programs.  I'm so glad that I was able to work with all these different students and show them that they can play any type of music on their instruments, no matter how loud and raucous it gets!

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