DaPonte String Quartet to perform at Bates

The award-winning DaPonte String Quartet with guest soprano Christina Astrachan will perform in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall at 8 p.m. September 30. The program includes Schulhoff’s “String Quartet,” Schubert’s “Salve Regina” and Mozart’s “String Quartet in G Major, K. 387.” After a brief intermission, Schoenberg’s “String Quartet No. 2, Op. 10” will conclude the concert. Soprano Christina Astrachan will perform on the Schubert and Schoenberg pieces. The public is invited and admission is free.

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.