The noted flute quartet performs at Grace Church.

If poverty-stricken Schubert were alive today, he would not be able to afford a house on Bainbridge – but his music will help make that possible for others.

Playing the music of Schubert, Haydn and Oswald, the Iris Quartet performs May 2 in a benefit for the Housing Resources Board, a nonprofit group dedicated to creating affordable housing on the island.

“It is a celebration to bring the organization and affordable housing into focus and the public eye,” said islander Janet See, flutist.

Violinist and Bainbridge Orchestra conductor Sandra Schwarz, violist Kim Zabelle and cellist Meg Brennand complete the quartet.

Sunday’s performance is the fifth annual benefit concert performed by the flute quartet, which plays in period instruments.

The program features two string quartets, with See playing the first violin part on flute.

The group chose to adapt string pieces, See says, because flute compositions from the 18th and 19th centuries, when the wind instrument was popular with amateurs, tend to be less substantial.

“The interpretation changes completely with the flute playing first (violin). It brings out subtleties and nuances in a more delicate way,” Schwarz said. “Because Janet (See) didn’t grow up playing these parts, it gives (the part) a fresh outlook.”

Highlights from the concert include the theme from the “Rosamunde” opera, which appears in the second movement of the Schubert A Minor quartet, and the third movement of Haydn’s No. 6, Opus 33 quartet – a movement Schwarz describes as a Mahler-like “dark waltz” with “bittersweet feelings.”

See notes that listeners unused to classical music will welcome the folk tunes of James Oswald, an 18th century Scottish composer who wrote “quasi-Baroque music with Scottish themes.”

“Past benefit concerts have been some people’s first classical chamber music concerts,” See said, but “they keep coming back.”

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Iris Quartet performs 3 p.m. May 2 at Grace Episcopal Church Tickets: $25 for adults, $15 for seniors and children, free for children under 12.

Information: 842-1909.