The Providence String Quartet will perform works by Pawtucket composer Steven Jobe in a concert Saturday at the Music Mansion in Providence.

When Pawtucket composer Steve Jobe dropped by the headquarters of the Providence String Quartet with a CD of his music it got the group to thinking. It had collaborated with a lot of local musicians, but had never performed music by local composers.

Why not put together a program of music by these people? But it soon became apparent that there was far more local talent around than could be squeezed onto a single concert. So the quartet has spread their music out over an entire season, mixing it with works by the likes of Beethoven, Dvorak and Schumann.

That way the series is guaranteed an audience, said violist Sebastian Ruth. It’s hard to count on much of a turnout for an entire program of new music, said Ruth.

The quartet has already given a couple of concerts showcasing the music of Mitchell Clark, Garrison Hull and Anthony Green, organist for Providence’s Olney Street Baptist Church. Saturday, it will be Jobe’s turn, when the quartet plays his Four Movements.

Jobe said he sat down to write the piece about three years ago, when he was “in the mood to write a quartet.

“I value the genre,” he said.

When he finished the score he realized it was something of a summation of the styles he had worked in over the years. There were smatterings of his 1993 opera Jeanne d’Arc, folk tunes and echoes of the time he spent working with accordionist Alec K. Redfearn, another composer taking part in this year’s Listen Local series.

Four Movements is unusual in that the slow movement is also scored for soprano. Ellen Santaniello, a longtime Jobe collaborator, will be singing the text of a poem Jobe wrote with “wandering minstrel imagery.” The movement boasts medieval sonorities and is similar to Jeanne d’Arc, he said.

The piece has been performed a couple of times in the past, but never by an established quartet. Jobe said he went to a rehearsal the other day and was delighted by what he heard.

“They really tore into it and made this enormous sound.”

In all, Listen Local will feature the work of nine area composers.

“We didn’t do a competition or a screening,” said cellist Heath Marlow. “We just picked people who had approached the quartet.” There were just two criteria, said Marlow, the music had to be for strings and the composer had to live around here.

Violist Ruth said more people have come out of the woodwork since the series began and there is thought being given to putting on more programs of music by local composers. And maybe Rhode Island composers will begin writing music for quartet. There is some evidence to suggest this. One of the composers on the series, Forrest Larson, has written music for solo violin and cello. He said recently that he would be glad to write a piece for viola, said Ruth.

Saturday’s concert also features quartets by Schumann and Dvorak, the composer’s lovely American Quartet.

The concert takes place at 8 p.m. at the Music Mansion, 88 Meeting St., Tickets are $15. Because seating is limited, it is suggested that those interested call (401) 861-5650 to reserve space.

cgray@projo.com