The 37-year-old Los Angeles native first appeared at SummerFest in 1990-91 as a member of the Rising Stars training program. She returned annually as a guest artist through 1995, the year before she was appointed associate concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra and three years before joining the New York Philharmonic.

“I'm so grateful for the time I spent at SummerFest,” says Staples, “When you sit next to the best, you can't help but pick up so much about sound, timing, color and pacing.”

Those lessons are now being passed on to violinist Deutsch, who is continuing the festival's educational tradition. The 21-year-old SanFernando Valley resident has wanted to be a violinist since she was 2 and saw Itzhak Perlman on TV's “Sesame Street” while eating her Cheerios.

“I told my mother that playing the violin was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” recalls the musician who was allowed to start lessons at age 5. “Now my goal is to be a world-class solo violinist.”

She already has her own Web site (www. LindsayDeutsch. com) and studies with Staples' former teacher, Los Angeles' revered Robert Lipsett.

Given the stature of many of tomorrow's performers, however, you can't blame her for being a little nervous about sharing the stage with Staples and Steinhardt in Maurer's Sinfonia Concertante.

“It's intimidating,” says Deutsch, who combines candor with a can-do spirit. “It would be terrible for there to be a huge gap in terms of tone. I don't want to sound like a 5-year-old. I want to rise to the occasion.”

Lin says of the concert, “From the moment we walk on stage, we want to let the sparks fly, just like great jazz musicians do.”

Unlike members of a string quartet or a symphony, who may play together on a regular basis for many years, the “Jam Session” musicians are matched up according to the requirements of the music, whether or not they've ever played together before.

That's bound to encourage freedom, freshness and musical discovery.