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THE DAPONTE STRING QUARTET is, clockwise from top left, Ferdinand
THE DAPONTE STRING QUARTET is, clockwise from top left, Ferdinand “Dino” Liva, violin; Myles Jordan, cello; Kirsten Monke, viola; and Lydia Forbes, violin.
The Friends of DaPonte String Quartet announced it has been awarded a $6,000 grant from the Maine Arts Commission for its “Classical Music in Historic Sites” project.

The first performance in this series will be Sept. 8 at a special “Candlelight Concert” to benefit the Old Walpole Meetinghouse, a beautifully restored 1772 structure that is on the National Register of Historic Places.

THE FIRST PERFORMANCE in the DaPonte String Quartet’s “Classical Music in Historic Sites” series will be a special “Candlelight Concert” Sept. 8 to benefit the Old Walpole Meetinghouse, pictured. The project — which includes a show at the Harpswell Meetinghouse to be announced — was conceived as a way to bring attention and new audiences to Maine’s historic and carefully preserved opera houses and meeting houses through classical music performances that stimulate public interest in the arts as a cultural resource.
THE FIRST PERFORMANCE in the DaPonte String Quartet’s “Classical Music in Historic Sites” series will be a special “Candlelight Concert” Sept. 8 to benefit the Old Walpole Meetinghouse, pictured. The project — which includes a show at the Harpswell Meetinghouse to be announced — was conceived as a way to bring attention and new audiences to Maine’s historic and carefully preserved opera houses and meeting houses through classical music performances that stimulate public interest in the arts as a cultural resource.
The project was conceived as a way to bring attention and new audiences to Maine’s historic and carefully preserved opera houses and meeting houses through classical music performances that will stimulate public interest in the arts as a cultural resource.

In addition to the Old Walpole Meetinghouse, the DaPonte String Quartet will perform in three other historic sites: the Harpswell Meeting House, the Stonington Opera House on Feb. 14, and Biddeford City Theater, a former opera house, on Feb. 23.

“There has been a movement throughout Maine not just to restore these gorgeous old buildings,” says FDSQ president Les Fossel, “but to make them, once again, the center of the cultural and economic life of their communities.

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“And,” he adds, “in the case of the opera houses, performing live chamber music in these surroundings is using them in the way they were built and intended to be used.”

The Old Walpole Meetinghouse concert is a perfect example of the way in which the setting enhances the music, and vice versa. The Meetinghouse is an exquisite example of colonial architecture, including a soaring hand-carved pulpit.

It has no electricity or running water. In the early September evening, illuminated only by candlelight, the quartet will perform in the center of the original box pews built in 1772.

The effect is “theater-inthe round”— a truly magical way to hear chamber music the way it was meant to be experienced. Proceeds from the performance will be used to help restore the Meetinghouse’s 12-over-12 light 18th- century curved windows.

The Maine Arts Commission is an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Tickets to the Sept. 8 “Candlelight Concert” at 7 p.m. at the Old Walpole Meetinghouse, Walpole Meetinghouse Road, are available from Maine Coast Bookstore in Damariscotta, the Walpole Barn in Walpole or the Framer’s Gallery in Boothbay; or by calling 563-5471.

For program information, visit www.DaPonte.org.


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