Join us for our Winter Concert Series in the Shaker Chapel to benefit The Shaker Herb House Cultural Arts Center renovation at Sabbathday Lake. Brighten your winter with beautiful acoustic music from Maine and beyond in the 1883 Shaker Dwelling House Chapel at Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in New Gloucester. From traditional and contemporary folk traditions to the Shaker Village return of the Portland String Quartet, these four special concert events will feature a delightful variety of stringed instruments and musical styles, performed by some of our region’s most talented musicians. Concert #4- Portland String Quartet with special guest violinist Saturday, April 11, 2026 5pm-6:30pm (doors at 4:30) Carried in Song is a reflection on identity, personal voice, and cultural memory through the medium of a string quartet. The program opens with Iranian composer Aftab Darvishi’s Daughters of Sol, a piece that draws on a rich variety of musical traditions. With gentle transitions and delicate shifts in color, the piece evokes cycles of life and the quiet persistence of memory, moving fluidly between light and shadow, dissolution and return. Boston-based Vartan Aghababian’s Armenian Suite follows as an exploration of heritage and spirituality, drawing from Armenian musical traditions to create a sound world of reverence and reflection. The program closes with Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 2, written during a time of war and displacement. Woven with Jewish musical themes, it speaks with urgency and expressivity, capturing the resilience and traditions of voices passed down through generations. The PSQ invites audiences to join us on this journey as we explore music as a vessel for what we carry, and for what carries us. The PSQ is Callie Brennan on violin, Brianna Fischler on viola, and Kelly Knox on cello. They will be joined by a guest musician on violin, to be announced. Proceeds of this concert benefit the ongoing historic preservation of the Herb House Cultural Center. The Herb House project aims to create a communal space for people to share traditional arts within the only active Shaker Community in the world. General Admission Please consider making an additional donation in your shopping cart at checkout. Thank you!
