For this year's holiday concert, the DaPonte String Quartet's programming is both eclectic and electric. The DSQ will be playing this mostly traditional and festive classical music program on their locally designed and internationally acclaimed electric instruments from NS Design in Nobleboro.

Intrigued and inspired by the quality of sound these instruments produced, and with assistance from NS Design’s team, the DSQ has been exploring various electronic effects that add unique and vibrant tonal colors to particular works of music.

For the program, the Quartet has spent the last month creating arrangements and transcriptions of traditional music, using the electric violin, cello, and viola. Concert-goers will hear an electric string version of the “Fanfare for the Common Man” (usually played on brass instruments and percussion), an arrangement of Pachelbel’s “I Want You Back,” Brian Head’s “Lobster Tail,” Bach’s “Concerto for Two Violins,” and “Three Canzones” by Gabrieli, a selection of Renaissance dance music, and several unannounced surprises will be thrown into the mix.

“We’re working on a digital delay, to make the music of Gabrieli sound like it is bouncing off the walls of a huge cathedral, like San Marco in Venice, where he used to play,” says violinist Ferdinand Liva.

“It’s new territory for us,” adds violist Kirsten Monke, “so we’re really having fun with it.”

NS Design founder, Ned Steinberger, lives in MidCoast Maine. He developed the "headless bass" made famous by musicians like Peter Gabriel. His innovative electronics gained attention from the likes of rock legend Eddie Van Halen. In 1990, Steinberger began turning his attention to the violin family and founded his company, NS Design, in Nobleboro.

“Bowed electric instruments have been made since the mid-thirties. Unfortunately, most of these instruments are the victims of the misplaced idea that an electric instrument should sound exactly like its acoustic predecessor,” Steinberger said. “I want to take it a step further. I want to see what these instruments can do when they are set free."

Today his stringed instruments are played around the globe by such artists as Laurie Anderson, David Darling, members of Oysterhead and the Dave Mallet band

Though they've known Steinberger and his family for many years (his two children play in Liva's Seacoast Community Orchestra), the DaPonte Quartet grew especially interested in these instruments last year when they decided to tackle George Crumb's ambitious score, "Black Angels," a work that calls for amplified instruments. Thanks to a generous gift from a private donor, they were able to purchase the quartet of matching NS Design instruments.  

The holiday concert will be performed in the following four venues:

Sunday, Nov. 30; 3 p.m., Unitarian Universalist Church, 1 Middle St., Brunswick. Tickets $25 at Gulf of Maine Books, Brunswick.

Friday, Dec. 12, 7 p.m.,  Hammond Hall, 427 Main St., Winter Harbor. Call for ticket information: 207-963-2569.

Saturday, Dec. 13, 7 p.m., St. Columba's Church, 32 Emery Way, Boothbay Harbor. Tickets $25 from Boothbay Harbor Region Chamber of Commerce, 207-633-2353 and St. Columba's, 207-633-6313.

Sunday, Dec. 14, 3 p.m., Second Congregational Church, 51 Main St., Newcastle. Free.

More details are available at www.daPonte.org.