You wouldn’t think that classical music would be a big draw for high

school students.

But presentation is everything, as the internationally renowned Portland String Quartet proved in a recently completed high school residency in American Studies at Orono High School. It was the only school in the state to receive the program this year.

The quartet ties together music, literature and history in a syllabus that takes the students from colonial times to the 1950s. They show how immigrants affected the culture in the melting pot that is America.

Cathy Knox, Orono High School principal, said the presentation works because it puts ideas in context for students.

“Our students have a whole range of backgrounds when it comes to the humanities,” Knox explained. “Connecting the dots [between ideas] is something students talk about a lot. [The quartet] is taking beautiful music and connecting it to literature and historical events. It’s the kind of teaching students consistently ask for.”

More than 100 students attended each of the three sessions in a two-month span. Although it’s meant for music, history and literature students, band director Steve Hodgdon explained that other students who might be interested in the topic were approached by teachers as well.

The four members of the Portland String Quartet, violinists Stephen Kecskemethy and Ronald Lantz, violist Julia Adams and cellist Paul Ross, have been together since 1969. The New York Times described them as “a model of experienced ensemble playing.”

For the recent third and final session of the course, the four veteran musicians were busily warming up as the students came clomping in to the OHS music room. The presentation finally started about 15 minutes late, after the stream of students had been reduced to a trickle.

The quartet’s members took turns introducing and explaining the relevance of each number. They looked at a Joplin rag, a Gershwin jazz classic, a traditional hymn which was then incorporated into a Charles Ives work, a patriotic song, wartime pieces by Shostakovich and a concentration camp victim, and even “Rock Around the Clock.” They also included works by Maine composers Walter Piston and Kay Gardner.

The musicians sprinkled their presentation with a healthy dose of humor. When Adams counted out the measure in the Piston piece while the other three played, Kecskemethy cracked, “See how we don’t need the viola? We didn’t miss a damn thing.”

Then, when Kecskemethy launched into the intro for the wrong number, the other three exchanged quizzical glances, then Lantz poked the errant musician with his bow, steering him back to George M. Cohan’s “Over There.”

If the legends emblazoned on their shirts were to be believed, there were few students in the room spinning classical CDs at home. There weren’t any “Strings Rule” T-shirts evident.

There wasn’t any Limp Bizkit, Dave Matthews or Nelly being played in this room. Yet the students were respectful of what they were hearing. They understood it was a rare opportunity to hear musicians at the top of their game, and especially a privilege to have the musicians come to them.

The quartet has been offering the program for a number of years, Adams said, but it’s really taken off in the past four or five years, thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts’ Education/Access Program.

Knox first became aware of the high school residency program while she was working at Maranacook Community School in Readfield. She served on a professional board with a woman who was also a member of the LARK Society for Chamber Music, which organizes the residency.

Knox applied for Maranacook, and the quartet came there in 1999, the same year Knox moved to Orono. She followed up on it, and received rave reviews.

She next approached Hodgdon and orchestra director Waldo Caballero. Both knew quartet members and were enthusiastic about having the residency at Orono, so she applied in 1999. That gave her a year to arrange for some underwriting, which came from the Davis Family Foundation, the Orono Boosters club and the Orono Schools Art Grant.

Hodgdon has been pleased with the students’ response to the program.

“It’s really interesting to hear performers talk about music in an unusual setting,” he said. “They take their time with this approach. On top of that, they’re a wonderful performing group. It was an extremely receptive audience, thanks to the performers’ magnetism and the interesting material as well.”

Sanford Phippen, the American literature teacher, echoed Hodgdon’s thoughts.

“I was delighted to see certain kids there that I never thought would have responded to classical music,” he said. “This should be in every school system.”