It’s not every day a free classical music concert comes to town. But the “Winter Classics” concert on Saturday night at St. Peter’s brought a free winter preview to what could become a hot summer tradition: The Padanaram Chamber Music Festival.

Three young musicians performed a selection of works ranging from traditional to modern by Beethoven, Schubert, Muczynski, and Brahms in a concert meant to introduce the village and the South Coast to the kind of work it will host this summer.

The festival will be run by Colin Roshak, who grew up spending his summers in Padanaram and wanted to give back to a place he loves.

“If I can make the air thick with music and art, that is my goal,” Roshak said.

His plan is to bring six or seven musicians to Padanaram for two weeks in August, when they will intensively rehearse and perform four concerts, alongside other community involvement like busking. The festival is being organized with the help of the Dartmouth Cultural Center and St. Peter’s.

“For the arts to succeed we need essentially two things,” Roshak said. “We need a willing audience, and enthusiastic artists.”

Roshak said that the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra’s success shows the region’s appetite for classical music, and has timed the festival to coincide with the Symphony’s summer hiatus. He is interested in chamber music because of the opportunity it provides for people to connect.

“You can do that in chamber music in a way that you don’t anywhere else,” Roshak said. “You’re not only with the players in the ensemble, but with the audience.”

He hopes to integrate people of all walks of life during the festival by choosing varied works and performing in unconventional places, like on street corners or at outreach concerts.

For the first concert, Roshak recruited two excellent young musicians: Sophie Applbaum, a cellist, and Evan Hines, a pianist.

Roshak and Applbaum met at the New England Conservatory Preparatory Program, and first performed part of the Braums piece featured in the concert together when they were in high school. Roshak met Hines at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, of which they are both alums.

The group prepared for the performance in just a few days, and traveled long distances to make it happen. Roshak is currently living and working in Alaska, and Hines is on staff as a collaborative pianist at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio.

The concert brought the audience to its feet in a standing ovation.

To learn more about the Padanaram Chamber Music Festival, go to www.padanaramchambermusic.com.