Stuart Levine and his musical collaborators from the Lawrence Woodwind Quintet toot on a shower hose, shell, ram’s horn and five conventional instruments to excite the imaginations of elementary students.

During a recent show at Cordley School, the performers and their audience pranced and cavorted to the quintet’s tunes.

“Seeing an old guy in a tux running around delights them,” Levine said. “They danced around the square in the gym.”

It was a toe-tapping time when Levine and his cohorts performed at Cordley, 1837 Vt. The show was one in a series that will bring the classical musicians into each of Lawrence’s 18 elementary schools during a two-year period.

The quintet performs as part of Concerts for Young People, a nonprofit organization that provides musical enrichment programs.

In some places, the performers are initially viewed by students as musical oddities.

“Many have not heard live music before,” Levine said. “They’re afraid it’s going to be terribly loud. They’re scared.”

Marching to the music of the Lawrence Woodwind Quintet, Cordley School second-graders, from left, Jessie Rust, Jason Graham and Drue Lewis, mime their own instrumental performances. The quintet provided an assembly for the students earlier this month that featured performances and discussions about the musicians' instruments.

But by the end of a typical 40-minute show, the students are happily humming “Passacaille for Woodwind Quintet” or slinking out of the gymnasium to the rhythm of Scott Joplin’s rag “The Easy Winners.”

Fred Pawlicki, associate director of the Lied Center at Kansas University, is convinced the music awareness program should be expanded to the district’s four junior high schools.

“That may be such things as an opera singer, male or female, accompanied by a piano,” said Pawlicki, who volunteers for the program. “We have a lot of ideas.”

There are a lot of details to be worked out before that happens, including financing for the bigger operation. But Pawlicki said if they could raise about $4,000, they could expand the program into the junior highs.

The money for the program currently is a combination of school district funds, private donations and contributions from the musicians themselves.

The quintet members are each otherwise employed or retired and do the school gigs part time.

Expansion of the program, if feasible, would be a worthy goal, said Ann Bruemmer, the district’s director of arts and humanities. The school district contributes a modest amount to support the elementary program.

“The value of Concerts for Young People is real,” she said. “Instruments come alive for them. It’s worth every minute we spend doing it.”

Levine, who serves as ringmaster for the quintet’s shows in schools, said he would welcome a broader display of musical forms for students.

“We love that idea,” he said.

Until that occurs, Levine and his gang will concentrate on the district’s youngest listeners. The quintet at Cordley was: Paul Jordan, clarinet; David Ruhlen, bassoon; Barbara Jones, oboe; Sharon Learned, flute; and Levine, French horn. Jordan and Jones have been with Levine since the late 1960s.

A typical performance in a school begins with a cheerful, bouncy overture as students walk into the gym.

The quintet’s men are dressed in tuxedos and the women in concert black.

“You’re playing for an important audience,” Levine said. “You ought to look your best.”

The group follows with snippets of other tunes to demonstrate meter, chords and how different instruments collaborate to make interesting sounds. They examine the difference between a single-reed and double-reed instrument.

They also come up with lyrics for an impromptu school song.

“David has them sing it so loud that other children in class can’t hear their teachers,” Levine said.

He said folks in the quintet demonstrate the sound of a shower hose, which is akin to musical flatulence. Big conch shells are played. “You can get a tremendous sound out of that,” Levine said.

He also whips out a massive, 5-foot-long ram’s horn.

“This is a ram you don’t want to meet in a dark alley,” Levine said. “It’s sort of a haunting sound.”

Sharing appreciation of music with younger generations keeps the quintet motivated. There’s more at stake than what appears on the surface.

“We tell the children,” Levine said, “that nobody knows why, but children that study instruments not only do better in school but tend to have happier, more productive lives.”