The DaPonte String Quartet will move to new venues in Brunswick and Portland while returning to familiar ones in Damariscotta, Boothbay Harbor, and Thomaston as it starts its 24th year in Maine this November with Enemies of the State. Performances will be held in Portland, Damariscotta, Brunswick, Thomaston, and Boothbay Harbor from Nov. 5-15.

Enemies of the State features works by three composers who were persecuted, or even died, at the hands of the state.

Mozart’s Quartet in A Major is a sunny, playful piece, but according to DSQ cellist Myles Jordan, Mozart’s “radical leftist” views may well have cost him his life, as questions about how he died and whether he might have been poisoned continue to swirl.

Erwin Schulhoff’s String Quartet No.1 is “like a ticking time bomb that foreshadows his own death some years later in a Nazi death camp,” says DSQ violinist Ferdinand Liva.

As for the “gentile-Jewish composer” Dmitri Shostakovich, he was a vociferous opponent of anti-Semitism, and much of his music showed clear Jewish influences, both of which were dangerous in Stalinist Russia at a time of resurgent anti-Semitism. With its clearly stated “Jewish Theme,” his Quartet in C Minor, Op. 110 is one of his best-known and reflects what Stravinsky called the suffering of the times.

The Portland concert has moved to the Jewish Museum in the city’s East End, which also has abundant free parking and is fully handicap accessible. It is particularly appropriate for the first concert, which features two composers persecuted for being Jewish or fighting anti-Semitism.

The Quartet’s Brunswick-area concert has moved to the new Unitarian Universalist Church on the corner of Middle and Pleasant Street in Brunswick, with abundant free parking nearby. The church, with its excellent acoustics and a tradition of embracing music, is one of the DSQ’s favorite places to play.

The DaPonte String Quartet is Maine’s premier string ensemble. Founded in 1991 in Philadelphia, it moved to Maine 20 years ago and now performs over 60 concerts a year, year round, from Presque Isle to Ogunquit.

Performances of “Enemies of the State” are
Nov. 5, 7:30 p.m., the Jewish Museum, 267 Congress St., Portland;

Nov. 6, 7:30 p.m., the Lincoln Theater, 2 Theater St., Damariscotta;

Nov. 7, 4 p.m., St. Columba’s Church, 32 Emery Way, Boothbay Harbor;

Nov. 8, 3 p.m., Unitarian Church, 15 Pleasant St., Brunswick;

Nov. 15, p.m., St John’s Church, 200 Main St., Thomaston.

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