Salt Bay Chamberfest’s 31st season will be presented Aug. 5 to 16 with concerts held at Damariscotta’s Lincoln Theater (2 Theater St.), at the Strand Theatre (345 Main St., Rockland), and the UMaine Orono Minsky Recital Hall; Free community events across Lincoln County include three special musical installations at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens (105 Botanical Gardens Drive) in Boothbay.

Indigenous music from down east Maine takes center stage this year, along with an SBC-commissioned world premiere, and an arrangement of Mahler’s monumental "Das Lied von der Erde" (The Song of the Earth).

Tuesday, Aug. 5: with a paean to Mother Earth at the Lincoln Theater featuring Passamaquoddy singer Lauren Stevens, Mohawk composer Dawn Avery, and all-female drumming group Cipelahq Ehpicik (Thunder Women), selections will include traditional Wabanaki drumming, a new work by Avery, and a collaboration between Avery and Stevens fittingly titled Skitkomiq (Mother Earth).  Dvořák’s viola quintet, inspired by Kickapoo Indigenous drumming. This concert will be presented at the Strand Theatre in Rockland Aug. 7.

Friday, Aug. 8 at the Lincoln Theater is The Brentano String Quartet. Musical meditations from the 16th century to the present creating a compelling consideration of the nature of home, place, identity, and heritage. The evening concludes with works by Monteverdi, Schubert, Bartók, and Tchaikovsky, and a new commission by Lei Liang.

Tuesday, Aug. 12 in Damariscotta is the world premiere of a new SBC-commissioned work by composer inti figgis-vizueta, featuring the delicate sounds of found natural objects. Then renegade flutist Claire Chase will perform a new work by minimalist maverick Terry Riley written expressly for her, titled "The Holy Liftoff." Debussy’s soaring and powerful "String Quartet" concludes the program. Performance at the Strand is Aug. 13.

Friday, Aug. 15  "Song Cycles" by Mahler concludes programming at the Lincoln Theater. The natural world inspired the German master’s immense orchestral scores, which often require hundreds of musicians to perform. This special arrangement of "Das Lied von der Erde" features mezzo-soprano (and Damariscotta native)  Kate Aldrich and a mini-orchestra of Festival performers. Shih-Hui Chen’s "Returning Souls," based on legends from Taiwan’s Amis tribe, makes a moving complement. Celebrated performers also include Bridget Kibbey, harp, Ayano Kataoka, percussion, and Kyu-Young Kim, violin.

Saturday, Aug. 16 at the UMaine’s Minsky Recital Hall in Orono works will include Mahler’s "Rückert-Lieder," Debussy’s "String Quartet," and a new collaboration between Passamaquoddy singer Lauren Stevens and Mohawk cellist and composer Dawn Avery.

This season also launches a new partnership with Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens (CMBG) at 105 Botanical Gardens Drive, Boothbay. SBC will bring three distinct musical installations to the stunning grounds connecting music to gardens and, along with Wabanaki musicians, celebrating the new Three Sisters Gardens. An RSVP grants concertgoers free access to the CMBG campus one hour prior to the event. Guests may stroll the more than 300 stunning acres before enjoying music beautifully paired with the landscape that it honors. Performances take place Friday, Aug. 8 at 3 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 9 at 4 p.m., and Thursday, Aug. 14 at 4 p.m. All are free with prior RSVP.

All Festival concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. Concerts at the Lincoln Theater, Damariscotta will feature a pre-concert talk at 6:30 p.m. Concerts in Rockland are all at the Strand; and the Festival concert at UMaine Orono will be at the Minsky Recital Hall at Collins Center for the Arts, 2 Flagstaff Road.

In addition to the musical installations at CMBG, Salt Bay Chamberfest will also present a number of other free community performances and events in Lincoln County and beyond. These include SBC’s annual Kids & Family Concert Thursday, Aug. 7 at 3 p.m., at the Central Lincoln County YMCA. Other venues include Skidompha, Music on the River at 39 Glidden St., and Music on the Docks at Round Pond Harbor in Bristol.

For the complete schedule, tickets and more information, visit https://saltbaychamberfest.org/2025-season or call 207-522-3749.