FARMINGTON – Maine Mountain Chamber Music will present a concert, featuring Olivier Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time,” Saturday, Sept. 22, on the University of Maine at Farmington campus.

Yuri Funahashi and Laurie Kennedy, MMCM directors, have invited violinist Cyrus Beroukhim, clarinetist Gilad Harel and cellist Tom Kraines to perform at 7:30 p.m. in Nordica Auditorium.

“Quartet for the End of Time,” a profound work of art, was written by Messiaen while he was interned in a German prison camp along with a clarinetist, a violinist and a cellist. Messiaen and his friends first performed it for their 5,000 fellow prisoners Jan. 15, 1941.

To complete the program, the musicians will play Jean Francaix’s “String Trio,” written in 1933. Françaix’s style is marked by lightness and wit, as well as a conversational style of interplay between the musical lines.

Of the two pieces, “I think that words like deeply spiritual, profound, sublime and inspirational are often used to describe the Messiaen quartet. Francaix’s trio can be described with words like light and vivacious,” said Funahashi.

In discussing his music, Franciax liked to quote a remark of Molière’s that may be translated: “It is a strange venture to make honest folk laugh.”

A native of Israel, Harel is an avid chamber music player and performs regularly with many classical music ensembles, including the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He also plays Cuban music with the Quinteto Roberto Rodriguez, balkan/jazz with the Cardamon Quartet, and Klezmer music with Klezshop and the Metropolitan Klezmer Orchestra.

Beroukhim made his debut with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra at age 15. He received a doctorate from The Juilliard School, has since performed at many prestigious music festivals and is a member of numerous chamber music ensembles.

Kraines, a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School, is gaining recognition worldwide as a cellist, composer and teacher. Formerly a member of the Peabody Trio, he performs as a duo with his wife, violinist Juliette Kang, as well as with the free improvisation ensembles Dithyramb and Spring Theory, and the chamber group Mistral.

Funahashi is a member of the Festival Chamber Music Society of New York City and the Pane-Funahashi Duo, and is a frequent guest performer at chamber music festivals around the world. Kennedy, principal violist of the Portland Symphony since 1981, appears frequently as a soloist with that orchestra and as a chamber artist throughout the Northeast. She is music director of the Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival in Harrison and has performed at that festival every summer since 1977.

Admission to the Sept. 22 concert is $9 for adults and $7 for seniors, with children under 16 admitted free. There are no advance ticket sales. For more information, call 645-2157.