BRUNSWICK

The DaPonte String Quartet has announced that Suzanne Nance will return to the state this month to help Maine celebrate Easter.

Nance will sing soprano while Joshua Miller sings baritone in a selection of Bach Cantatas that are part of the DaPonte Quartet’s “Easter Program.” Another Easter-themed piece, Haydn’s “Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross,” rounds out the program. They will perform five concerts, from March 23- 27, at venues in Thomaston, Portland, Damariscotta, Boothbay Harbor and Brunswick.

“It’s a great joy to return to Maine to interpret Bach’s music with the accomplished and respected musicians of Daponte,” said Nance, adding that she also enjoys coming back to Bach. “I always return to his music. It is challenging and uplifting and resonates deeply with me as both a performer and a listener.”

While most Mainers know her as the former host of MPBN’s classical music radio show, her vocal concerts have led to sold-out performances of German lieder, American art song, French melodie, opera and musical theater on stages around the world.

Since leaving MPBN, where she won an Emmy for producing and hosting MaineArts!,

Nance has become one of the fastest-rising stars in the world of classical music radio. She went from Maine to WMFT in Chicago, where she hosted the drive time classical music show and coproduced and hosted the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s internationally syndicated radio broadcast. From WMFT she went to Oregon to head up All Classical Portland.

Baritone Miller is also known to Mainers as an alumnus of both the USM School of music and the PORTopera Young Artist Program. He left Maine to pursue an opera career in New York City, where he has been a soloist with the Metro West Opera, St. Cecilia’s Chamber Choir, and sang the title role in Mendelssohn’s “Elijah” with the Bagaduce Chorale.

Performances of “Easter Program” are

• March 23, 7:30 p.m., St John’s Church, 200 Main St., Thomaston;

• March 24, 7:30 p.m., the Jewish Museum, 267 Congress St., Portland;

• March 25, 7:30 p.m., the Lincoln Theater, 2 Theater St., Damariscotta;

• March 26, 4 p.m., St. Columba’s Church, 32 Emery Way, Boothbay Harbor;

• March 27, 3 pm, Unitarian Church, 15 Pleasant St., Brunswick.

Tickets are $20, and are available at DaPonte.org, at Maine Coast Books or River Arts Gallery in Damariscotta, Longfellow Books in Portland, Gulf of Maine Books in Brunswick, or at (207) 529-4555.