PORTLAND – The Portland Symphony Orchestra will celebrate Beethoven’s music and life with a full schedule of performances in March and April. In addition, the Portland String Quartet will be performing several pieces by Beethoven. Toshiyuki Shimada will conduct all the orchestra’s performances.

The first concert in the Beethoven Celebration will be Tuesday, March 1, with an “All-Beethoven Program.” The symphony orchestra will play Beethoven’s “Overture to Fidelio”; his Violin Concerto, featuring guest violinist Stephanie Chase; and Symphony No. 3, “Eroica.” The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. following a Concert Conversation at 6:15 p.m. with Robert Lehmann, director of string studies at the University of Southern Maine.

For the UBS Sunday Classical Series on March 13, the orchestra is presenting a concert on the “Pastorale Symphony.” It will invite the audience to hear works by Beethoven’s contemporaries: the elegance of Mendelssohn, the romance of Schubert and Beethoven’s own musical depiction of country life. The pieces include Mendelssohn’s “The Tales from Fair Melusina,” Schubert’s Mass No. 2 in G major and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, the “Pastorale.”

Singers Ellen Chickering and Mark Nemeskal will be special guests, along with the USM and Bowdoin chamber choirs. A Concert Conversation at 1:15 p.m. will be led by Mary K. Hunter, professor of music and department chair at Bowdoin. The orchestra’s Music Camp (for children age 9 and older) will also focus on Beethoven and will be at 1:15 p.m., led by orchestra musician Julie Verret. The concert begins at 2:30 p.m.

On Tuesday, March 22, the symphony orchestra presents Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Choral Art Society’s Masterworks Chorus. Inspired by Schiller’s “Ode to Joy,” the monumental final movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is filled with joy too vast and deep for instruments alone. The Choral Art Society’s Masterworks Chorus will lend its voice to this magnificent work. This will be paired with a world premiere by Vineet Shende, a composer and an assistant professor at Bowdoin, commissioned by the symphony orchestra. The audience will also hear Beethoven’s “Leonore” Overture No. 3. Prior to the concert, Shende will be the guest speaker at Concert Conversations, which will be at 6:15 p.m.

Other Beethoven events scheduled as part of the Beethoven Celebration include “Musically Speaking,” Thursday, March 3, at the Portland Public Library in Rines Auditorium; the Sunday, March 6, Portland String Quartet performance at Woodfords Congregational Church; Music Camp at Merrill Auditorium on Sunday, March 13, to coincide with the pre-concert lecture, Concert Conversation, prior to the “Pastorale Symphony”; and in April, four youth concerts by the symphony.

For more information about the Portland Symphony, its events and activities, visit www.portlandsymphony.com.

Tickets can be purchased through PortTix, (207) 842-0800, or at the PortTix box office at 20 Myrtle St., between noon and 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Tickets range in price from $15 to $53 for adults, with discounts for students, seniors, children and groups.

Tickets may also be purchased online at www.porttix.com. For group sales or youth concert tickets, people can contact the symphony orchestra at (207) 773-6128.