Arcady Music Society will continue its 2006 Summer Music Festival with the world-renowned Moscow String Quartet Monday through Thursday, July 31-Aug. 3, in a program that will celebrate the great Russian composer Shostakovich in his centennial year, with a performance of his third string quartet. Heard in four performances on the Arcady tour, the Moscow Quartet will offer a different piece mid-program. Listeners in Orono and Bucksport will hear Borodin’s romantic second quartet, while those in Dover-Foxcroft and Bar Harbor will hear the French impressionism of Debussy.

Described by Alfred Schnittke as “an extraordinary ensemble that distinguishes itself with refined musical style, an unusually beautiful sound and palette of colors, and a tremendous artistic temperament,” the members of the Moscow String Quartet have earned a place among the most distinguished artists of our times.

All graduates of the Moscow Conservatory and Gnessin Musical Institute in Moscow, they were students of eminent professors, including Yuri Yankelevich, Genrihk Talalian of the Komitas String Quartet and Valentin Berlinsky of the Borodin Quartet, with whom the quartet continued to study after graduation.

The Moscow String Quartet gained international acclaim after winning the 1978 Leo Weiner International Quartet Competition in Budapest. The next year, the quartet triumphed at the International Quartet competition in Evian, France.

Since then, the Moscow String Quartet has played to consistent critical acclaim in the major concert halls in Europe, including regular performances at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Salle Gaveau in Paris, Wigmore Hall in London, repeated appearances at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig and the Academy of Arts in Berlin.

In addition, the quartet has appeared in many prestigious festivals, including the Paris and City of London Festivals, Berliner Festwochen, Stratford-upon-Avon and Cheltenham Festivals, Casals Festival in Prades, the Catalonia Festival in Spain and the Newport Festival. In North America, the Moscow String Quartet has performed in New York City at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Frick Collection, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Detroit, Chicago, Dallas, Salt Lake City, San Diego, Seattle, Vancouver and Montreal.

In 1996, the ensemble was invited by Madeleine Albright to perform at a White House Christmas Concert. From 1991 through 1996, the quartet was in residence at the Lamont School of Music in Denver, and since 1997 has been in residence at the University of Colorado in Denver. Upcoming engagements include performances at the Concertgebouw, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Soc., the Ottawa Chamber Music and the Casals Festival in San Juan.

The Moscow String Quartet has recorded for MCA, Fine Arts Records, Russian Disk, Channel Classics and Melodiya, releasing four CDs including works by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Schnittke, Mozart, Denisov and Glinka.

There will be four opportunities to hear the Moscow Quartet perform:

. 7:30 p.m. Monday, July 31, at Minsky Auditorium, University of Maine, Orono.

. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 1, at the Center Theatre, Dover-Foxcroft.

. 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 2, at the Alamo Theatre, Bucksport.

. 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 3, at St. Saviour’s Episcopal Church, Bar Harbor.

Arcady supports and showcases the talented young musicians of Maine and will present winners from this year’s Arcady Youth Competition at the beginning of each concert. This week’s series will feature pianists Will Bristol of Brunswick and Ethan Townsend of Jefferson.

Arcady is made possible with the support of the Rockefeller Fund, Bangor Daily News and the Nakamura Brace Co.

Admission is $17, and $10 for college students with ID. A six-admission Flex-Pass is $85. Those 18 and younger are invited to attend free of charge. For more information, e-mail Arcady at arcady@arcady.org, visit www.arcady.org or call 669-4225.