LEWISTON – The noted St. Lawrence String Quartet will play at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 4, in Olin Arts Center Concert Hall at Bates College.

Canada’s premiere chamber ensemble, the quartet is a regular presence at Maine’s Bay Chamber Concerts. Members are violinists Geoff Nuttall and Barry Shiffman, violist Lesley Robertson and cellist Christopher Costanza.

The musicians “are remarkable not simply for the quality of their music making, exalted as it is,” wrote New Yorker critic Alex Ross, “but for the joy they take in the act of connection.”

The quartet’s Bates program will include music by Beethoven, Mozart and Shostakovich. Founded in 1989, the quartet quickly earned recognition, winning both the Banff and Young Concert Artists’ competitions in 1992.

Since 1998, the quartet has served as ensemble-in-residence at Stanford University. It performs about 100 concerts annually throughout North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and other countries. Its recordings have garnered numerous awards, including a Juno, a Grammy nomination and a German critics’ award.

The quartet enjoys close associations with many of North America’s leading composers, including Osvaldo Golijov, R. Murray Shafer, Christos Hatzis, Jonathan Berger, Roberto Sierra, Ka Nin Chan and Mark Applebaum.

Admission to this Bates College Concert Series program is $8 for adults, $5 for senior citizens and non-Bates students with ID. For reservations, call (207) 786-6135. FMI: visit http://abacus.bates.edu/concerts/.