For years and years the DaPonte String Quartet has expressed its thanks to its community by presenting a free holiday concert. This year, the concert is to be held Dec. 8 at 3 p.m., at the Second Congregational Church in Newcastle. The music selections include short excerpts from a pair of the classic master composers, with a few modern selections positioned in the middle. Like a holiday sandwich!

Since 1995, the members of the DaPonte String Quartet have offered their talents and their dedication to their Maine community, helping to make it a richer, more beautiful place to live. The citizens of Maine have, in turn, embraced them. The DSQ is eternally grateful for your support, your investment, and your continuing interest. They humbly offer this annual concert as a token of their appreciation.

Fresh conception requires original thought, and the DSQ's is based on solid research, extensive scholarship, and meticulous preparation. Strings Magazine recently remarked on the inclusion of British composer Thomas Ades's quartet Arcadiana in the DSQ's repertoire, noting that few groups would find themselves able to invest the hundreds of hours of preparation required for music of such complexity. This sort of groundwork gives their performances authority, but an authority that isn't stiff or aloof.

Their concerts are dynamic and their stage manner — with one another and with their audiences — is warm and conversational. The Quartet members regularly share musical insights with their audiences before playing and these "spoken program notes" enable the listener to enter into a deeper connection with the composers and their music. Their performances affirm chamber music as a vital and alive art form.

As an added bonus, this concert’s intermission will be filled with offerings from local restaurateurs, who have kindly donated their culinary skills and will present tasty treats for us all.

Full program: Mozart - “Divertimento in D Major, K.136:” Sculthorpe - “String Quartet No. 8 (excerpts);” Ravel - « String Quartet in F Major (excerpt); Earl Louis Stewart - “Two Blues Fugues;” Haydn - “Quartet in G Major, Op. 77, No. 1.”