Busy class schedules and extra-curricular activities make it difficult to attend the various performances offered at Grand Valley State University. The Arts at Noon series seeks to make it easier to take a break and enjoy a few minutes of music with 14 brief performances held on Wednesdays throughout the fall semester.

GVSU is kicking off the 39th annual Arts at Noon series Wednesday, Sept. 14 from noon until 12:45 p.m. at the Cook-Dewitt Center on the Allendale Campus with a performance from the Grand Rapids Perugino String Quartet.

Admission to all Arts at Noon events is free for GVSU students and faculty. The series invites top performers from all over the world to bring the GVSU community together through a diverse range of music.

“It’s a very exciting semester with the performances,” said Henry Duitman, GVSU director of orchestras and Arts at Noon series coordinator. “We love to have students hearing and interacting with the performers.”

The Perugino String Quartet formed in 1997, and is currently represented by violinists Eric Tanner and Christopher Martin, viola player Barbara Corbato and cellist Stacey Bosman Tanner.

“The best part, which one can rarely pick up from a recording or radio broadcast, is seeing the process unfold live in front of you,” Tanner said. “Watching the musicians communicate with each other wordlessly and strive to become one instrument playing together in perfect synchronicity.”

The group’s performance for the Arts at Noon series will include pieces by Bach, Beethoven and Israeli-American composer Shalimit Ran.

“We aim to expose listeners to both the classics of the chamber music repertoire as well as newer works that even experienced fans might not be familiar with,” Tanner said. “Even though it’s 30 minutes of music, the audience will be quite amazed at the variety of moods and expressive qualities over the course of the piece.”

In addition to Arts at Noon series at GVSU, the Perugino Quartet has performed at the Chamber Music Festival in Saugatuck, Michigan in August and is planning more concerts, including one in Holland, Michigan in March.

“The most interesting thing about a quartet is that there’s no conductor,” Tanner said. “That means the four of us have to agree on all musical matters, such as tempo, ourselves, making it a very collaborative process both in rehearsal and concert. People who have never heard a quartet before are surprised at how much sound we produce, knowing that we are an entirely acoustical group.”