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The DaPonte String Quartet was formed in Philadelphia in 1991, and came to Maine in 1995 on a Rural Residency Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and Chamber Music America. At the end of the grant period, unlike most groups sent to enrich rural communities, the four musicians and their families decided to put down personal and professional roots in Maine and to build their career there.

The Quartet has performed in various venues, including the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Beethoven Cycle at the University at Buffalo (N.Y.), McGill University in Montreal, the Scottish Academy of Music in Glasgow, Music Mountain in Connecticut, Mohawk Trail series in Massachusetts, Bowdoin College, Hofstra University, Rhode Island School of Design, and the Universities of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Alabama as well as Eckerd College and Rockefeller University. The Quartet has been presented on Performance Today for Public Radio International, on Maine Public Television, Radio-Canada, and numerous National Public Radio affiliates.

For the past two years, the DaPonte String Quartet has been involved in a "parachute residency" at the University of North Texas, the largest college of music in the country. The Quartet spends approximately a week each year, giving concerts and participating in musical activities of faculty members.

The Quartet is committed to developing an appreciation of chamber music through teaching and educational outreach. In 2003, the Quartet premiered a work commissioned from Gia Comolli called "String Play" that highlights the techniques and the special effects that string instruments produce while playing music. It is a charming piece, wonderful music in its own right, with narration and materials that can be tailored to various age levels. The Quartet has played "String Play" often, in Maine and elsewhere. Last year, they were invited to perform the piece in Tuscaloosa and Huntsville, Alabama. In Maine, the DaPonte Quartet gave 18 In-School presentations of the piece, underwritten by the Falcon Foundation and Science Source. In addition, the Quartet presents annually an intensive workshop for Maine's talented young string players. Now in its fifth season, this workshop is offered without charge through an endowment from the Kennedy Learning Center in Nobleboro, Maine.