The Portland String Quartet will perform a free concert of works by Beethoven, Peter Ré and Mozart on Saturday, Sept. 19, at Colby College in Waterville. The concert begins at 8 p.m. in Colby's Lorimer Chapel and opens the 1998-99 Music at Colby concert series.

The three works on the program are Ludwig van Beethoven's String Quartet in F Minor, Op. 95, Serioso; Peter Ré's String Quartet No. 1 (1956); and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's String Quartet in B flat Major, K. 458, The Hunt. Peter Ré is an emeritus professor of music at Colby, a former conductor of the Colby Symphony Orchestra and a Waterville resident.

The Portland String Quartet is composed of violinists Stephen Kecskemethy and Ronald Lantz, cellist Paul Ross and Julia Adams on viola. The ensemble, which has played together longer than any U.S. quartet except the Guarneri String Quartet, has established a reputation for strong performances on its international tours, and its recordings on the Arabesque and Northeastern labels have won a variety of honors. The musicians are artists-in-residence at Colby and have conducted a string quartet institute there for the last 23 summers.

For information about this year's schedule of Music at Colby events contact Barbara Russo at 207-872-3236.