The program opens with a performance of Mozart’s String Quartet in D major, K. 499, followed by Thomas Myron’s Kaethe Kollwitz for Soprano and String Quartet, based on poems by Muriel Rukeyser. After a brief intermission, the program concludes with Antonin Dvorak’s Quartet for Strings in F major, Op. 94 (“American”).

Described by The New York Times as a “model of experienced ensemble playing,” the Portland String Quartet is composed of violinists Steven Kecskemethy and Ron Lantz, violist Julia Adams and cellist Paul Ross. The ensemble’s recording of George Chadwick’s Piano Quintet with Virginia Eskin was named 1989 Classical Recording of the Year by The New York Times, and their recording of Bloch: The Five String Quartets was named outstanding chamber music release of 1983-84 by The Washington Post and The Boston Globe.

The quartet members have been performing, teaching and recording together since 1969. Artists in residence at Colby College since 1986, their chamber music workshops gained international acclaim when the United Nations educational division sponsored their string quartet workshops in Caracas, Venezuela, in the 1970s. Their 14 recordings on the Arabesque and Northeastern labels include string quartets by Antonin Dvorak, Franz Schubert and Richard Strauss.

Composed of violinists Dean Arthur Stein and Ferdinand Liva, violist Mark Preston and cellist Myles Jordan, the Damariscotta-based DaPonte String Quartet has received awards from Chamber Music America, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia. The Quartet members have performed on Maine Public Radio’s classical music program Music Du Jour, and their recent CD release features works by Beethoven and Hugo Wolf.

Ten years ago Astrachan came to the U.S. from her native Switzerland, where she graduated summa cum laude from the Zurich Music Conservatory, founded the early music ensemble Florelegium Musicum and sang as a member of the Zurich Opera House Choir. Since fall 1995, she has been on the Portland Conservatory of Music faculty and also teaches privately at her home in Portland. She is regularly heard with the Maine Baroque Ensemble and the Portland Early Music Consort, which she co-founded. In honor of Schubert’s 200th birthday, she presented several acclaimed Leider recitals and was the featured singer in the Portland Concert Association’s Schubert Symposium in March 1997.