LEWISTON – A work by William Matthews, Alice Swanson Esty Professor of Music at Bates College, will be featured when musicians from the Portland Chamber Music Festival return to Bates for a concert Sunday, March 4.

The 8 p.m. concert in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St., is open to the public at no cost.

Jennifer Elowitch, a violinist from Portland, and pianist Dena Levine founded the festival in 1994, to bring a new freshness to summer music in Maine.

Elowitch, Levine, violinist Gabriela Diaz, violist Carol Rodland and cellist Andrew Mark will perform Gustav Mahler’s youthful Piano Quartet; Antonin Dvorak’s String Quartet in F major (Op. 96), nicknamed the “American” quartet; and Matthews’ “A Book of Hours,” a work for string trio written in 1997.

“We are really looking forward to performing Professor Matthews’ piece at Bates,” said Elowitch. “His love of jazz and excellent sense of humor really come through, and that’s fun for us within the context of the ‘straight’ classical pieces on the program. I suspect the piece will be a real crowd-pleaser.”

In August, the chamber music festival will celebrate its 14th season with inaugural performances in its new home, the University of Southern Maine’s Abromson Community Education Center in Portland. Since its inception, the festival has presented more than 70 concerts featuring nationally acclaimed performers and composers from the United States, Canada, Europe and Latin America.

The festival’s 2007 season (Aug. 16-25) includes members of the St. Louis and Chicago symphonies and the New York Philharmonic, along with soloists, chamber musicians and music faculty members from across the country.

Elowitch is the assistant principal second violinist of the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra and performs regularly with the Boston Symphony. A champion of contemporary music, she has appeared with Boston Musica Viva, Collage New Music and other contemporary ensembles in the Boston area. She is on the faculties of Bowdoin College and the New England Conservatory Preparatory School.

Levine has appeared at the Marlboro and Tanglewood festivals and in series in Europe and Asia. As a founding member of the Laurel Trio, she was a winner of the Concert Artists Guild and ProPiano competitions. She is assistant professor of piano at Seton Hall University and directs the school’s concert series.

For more information about the Bates concert, call 786-6135.