The DaPonte String Quartet’s 2016-17 Winter Series will feature two guest artists—and a major venue change. Violist Katherine Murdock and cellist Scott Kluksdahl will join the Quartet for the March and May concerts (respectively). And the regular Thomaston concert series will be moved to the Rockport Opera House.

Series I, “Running a Ground” (Nov.4-20), features Mozart’s “Quartet No. 23 in F Major,” John Heiss’s “Microcosms,” and Prokofiev’s “String Quartet in F Major, Op. 92.”

Violist Katherine Murdock will play two quintets in Series II, “Bees in Your Bonnet,”  (Mar. 19-26) which consists of selected fugues from J.S. Bach’s “Art of the Fugue,” Beethoven’s “String Quintet in C Major Op. 29” and Brahms’s “String Quintet in G Major.” Murdock is a member of the Los Angeles Piano Quartet and a former member of the Mendelssohn String Quartet. She has toured and recorded with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Music from Marlboro, the Boston Chamber Music Society, New York Philharmonic, and Boston Symphony Orchestra, and has collaborated with the Vermeer, Emerson, and Guarneri quartets. 

Series III, “Memento Mori,” (May 7-14),  consists of Thomas Ades’s “Arcadiana” and Samuel Barber’s “Adagio from String Quartet, Op.  11.” It concludes with the Schubert “Cello Quintet in C Major,” with guest artist Scott Kluksdahl on cello. Kluksdahl has received Tanglewood's Leonard Bernstein Fellowship, prizes in Naumburg and Washington International Competitions, and degrees from Harvard and Juilliard.

Get out your calendars for these 2016 and 2017 dates ...

Performances of “Running a Ground” are: Friday, Nov. 4, 7:30 p.m., the Lincoln Theater, 2 Theater Street, Damariscotta; Sunday, Nov. 6, 3 p.m., Rockport Opera House, 6 Central Street, Rockport; Saturday, Nov. 12, 4 p.m., St. Columba’s Church, 32 Emery Way, Boothbay Harbor; Thursday, Nov. 17, 7:30 p.m., the Jewish Museum, 267 Congress Street, Portland; Saturday, Nov. 19, 7:30 p.m., Johnson Hall Theater, 280 Water Street, Gardiner; and Sunday, Nov. 20, 3 p.m., Unitarian Church, 15 Pleasant Street, Brunswick.

Performances of “Bees in Your Bonnet” are: March 19, 3 p.m., Rockport Opera House, Rockport; March 23, 7:30 p.m., the Jewish Museum, Portland; March 24, 7:30 p.m., the Lincoln Theater, Damariscotta; March 25, 4 p.m., St. Columba’s Church, Boothbay Harbor; and March 26, 3 p.m., Unitarian Church, Brunswick.

Performances of “Memento Mori” are: May 7, 3 p.m., Unitarian Church; May 11, 7:30 p.m., the Jewish Museum, May 12, 7:30 p.m. the Lincoln Theater; May 13, 4 p.m., St. Columba’s Church; and May 14, 3 p.m., Rockport Opera House.

Tickets are $20, and (except for the Nov. 19 Gardiner concert) are available at www.DaPonte.org, at Sherman’s Maine Coast Books in Damariscotta and Boothbay Harbor, Longfellow Books in Portland, Gulf of Maine Books in Brunswick, or at 529-4555. Gardiner tickets are available from Johnson Hall at 207-582-7144.

The DaPonte String Quartet is Maine’s premier string ensemble. Founded in 1991 in Philadelphia, it is currently celebrating its 25^th year.  The Quartet performs over 60 times a year, year round, from Presque Isle to Ogunquit.