A Chinese hot pot dinner cooked by members of the Vega String Quartet is just of the prizes up for grabs at "Spring for Strings," a "musical auction" benefitting the Quartet in Residence program.

The concert and fundraiser is set for Saturday, April 11, at 7:30 p.m. in Emerson Concert Hall of the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts. It features performances by Emory musicians including the Vega String Quartet; Timothy Albrecht, Emory University Organist and music professor; and pianists Gary Motley, director of Jazz studies, and William Ransom, Mary Emerson Professor of Piano and director of the Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta.

Interspersed with the musical performances will be a fundraising auction with Gary Hauk, Emory vice president and deputy to the president, serving as emcee and auctioneer.

In addition to dinner cooked by the Vega String Quartet, prizes include private house concerts by the quartet, Ransom and Motley; mountain, lake and beach vacations; and chances to conduct the Emory Symphony Orchestra in concert, play the Emerson Hall organ for an hour, be artistic director for a day and program a Cooke Noontime Concert, and be a reader at Emory's annual Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols.

The event is free, including champagne and cake, with no tickets required, but funds raised will help meet the $1 million matching challenge grant from the Abraham J. and Phyllis Katz Foundation to permanently endow a string quartet in residence at Emory. Winning bids are tax deductible, according to event organizers.