Music may have charms to soothe the savage beast, but it couldn’t tame the beastly heat Thursday afternoon at South Park.

Still, more than a dozen of Julie Holmberg’s young violin students and their parents braved the temperatures for a picnic and an informal recital in the relatively cool shade of the park’s bandstand.

It is the 15th year Holmberg, of Lawrence Suzuki String Studios, has put on the summer picnic performance.

“It’s always on the hottest day of the year,” she said.

After a picnic of roasted hot dogs and smores, the students  ages 4 to 16  demonstrated their skills on fiddles that sometimes appeared nearly as big as the musicians, but which also ranged in size according to the player.

After several tunes as a group, including three variations of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” each of the budding violinists played a solo.

Those pieces varied according to the students’ ages and skill levels. Newer musicians played rhythms or scales, while the older students played sonatas and minuets.

“Everybody plays, and you play what you know how to perform,” Holmberg said. “If you know how to play rhythms, you play rhythms.”

Hannah DePriest, 5, McLouth, played scales. She’s been a student for only three months.

“She actually wants to be a Dixie Chick,” said her mother, Traci, referring to the all-female country band. “That’s how we started out.”

Holmberg said the relaxed nature of the picnic made it easier for some students to perform.

“Some people will play here who don’t want to play at the recital hall,” she said.

Even if it is 100 degrees outside.

“Nobody wants to miss it,” Holmberg said. “We’ve always had a good response.”