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hplandmark.com life & Arts<br />
the highland park landmark | March 7, 2019 | 19<br />
<strong>HP</strong> Strings perform in Mexico, teach masterclasses<br />
Erin Yarnall, Editor<br />
Diners at Puerto Vallarta’s<br />
Cafe des Artistes,<br />
a haute cuisine restaurant<br />
owned and operated<br />
by chef Thierry Blouet,<br />
were treated on Feb. 17<br />
to a musical performance<br />
from Highland Park’s own<br />
Highland Park Strings trio.<br />
The trio, comprised of<br />
Highland Park Strings<br />
founder and cellist Larry<br />
Block, violinist Fran<br />
Shonfeld Sherman and<br />
viola player Jerry Taxy,<br />
coordinated their trip with<br />
the Highland Park Sister<br />
Cities Foundation, and<br />
spent five days in Mexico<br />
working with students at<br />
the Orquesta Escuela de<br />
Puerto Vallarta (OEPV),<br />
or the Orchestra School of<br />
Puerto Vallarta.<br />
“Their goal is, through<br />
music, to build better<br />
citizens, to creative sensitive<br />
leaders,” said Carol<br />
Wolfe, the president of the<br />
Highland Park Sister Cities<br />
Foundation about the<br />
Mexican school. “They<br />
feel that music is a vehicle<br />
to teach discipline, to teach<br />
passion, to teach dedication<br />
and commitment and<br />
a lot of the studies point<br />
to kids who are involved<br />
in music, and music education,<br />
really are headed<br />
toward success.”<br />
The members of the<br />
Highland Park Strings trio<br />
spent their first night performing<br />
at the restaurant,<br />
but in the following days<br />
they worked with OEPV<br />
to teach masterclasses to<br />
students and help set up<br />
the school’s orchestra.<br />
“Sister Cities has also<br />
been very generous with<br />
the orchestra, in terms of<br />
supplying instruments,”<br />
Block said. “We’ve sent<br />
[OEPV] about a dozen<br />
violins, violas and cellos<br />
of which we’ve acquired<br />
from cooperative dealers.<br />
The kids are playing those<br />
instruments.”<br />
While The Strings trio<br />
were performing throughout<br />
their trip, Block says<br />
he views it more as a<br />
vacation.<br />
“It’s a holiday really, in<br />
a sense,” Block said. “We<br />
get to stay in a nice hotel,<br />
and enjoy the warm weather.”<br />
“Not that the weather<br />
here isn’t great,” Block<br />
sarcastically added.<br />
The trip also lined up<br />
with a three-week vacation<br />
to Puerto Vallarta<br />
that Block and his wife<br />
annually take.<br />
“It’s just a coincidence it<br />
became a sister city,” said<br />
Block, who was formerly<br />
the president of the Sister<br />
Cities Foundation.<br />
The trip culminated in a<br />
concert in which both the<br />
trio and students at OEPV<br />
performed.<br />
“Our Sister Cities relationship<br />
with Puerto Vallarta<br />
started 16 years ago,<br />
and we’ve had many collaborations,<br />
exchanges<br />
and programs in the arts,”<br />
Wolfe said. “Sister Cities<br />
is all about building<br />
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places and cultures. It’s all<br />
about finding our common<br />
values and sharing our cultures<br />
and making the world<br />
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because we’re connecting<br />
people with people.”<br />
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Highland Park Strings founder Larry Block works with a student at the Orquesta<br />
Escuela de Puerto Vallarta in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Photos submitted
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