Trying to sum up 30 years as director of Music at Eden's Edge, the North Shore's chamber music ensemble, founder Maria Benotti pointed to a bookcase packed with sheet music.
"I haven't played everything over there," Benotti said, "but I've played a lot of it. When you take a look back, what an incredible odyssey."
The ensemble will celebrate those three decades of playing classical music tomorrow with a gala concert and fundraiser in the East India Marine Hall at Peabody Essex Museum.
The money raised will benefit outreach programs Eden's Edge conducts for youths and seniors, which Benotti has come to see as central to the ensemble's mission.
When she founded the group, "I just wanted to play chamber music with other good players," Benotti said.
Those who have played in Eden's Edge over the years have typically been freelance musicians who also work in other groups and orchestras in Boston.
But when school music programs suffered cuts following passage of Proposition 21/2, Benotti grew concerned about how and where future audiences for classical music would develop.
Benotti's own formative experience of classical music, in fourth grade, was provided by a group that played baroque music at her school.
"I didn't come from a musical family, and this was just an explosion — I still remember it," she said.
Since it started presenting youth chamber concerts 21 years ago, Eden's Edge has brought live, classical music to more than 37,000 students at nine public elementary schools in six towns on the North Shore.
"Now I feel like it's a broader realization of our mission, that music becomes a part of our lives as a society," Benotti said. "The only way we can make that happen is to be out there doing it. I go into the schools, and year after year they come, from kindergarten through grade five. That's six years of exposure."
In addition to youth concerts, each concert series Eden's Edge plays includes a free performance for seniors, played in the afternoon, at a venue chosen for its accessibility.
"I think music matters," Benotti said, and audiences at Eden's Edge performances have felt the same.
"A lady came up to me at the last senior concert and said, 'I want to thank you for making sure that people who don't have a lot of money can hear this,'" Benotti said.
Eden's Edge started a new outreach program this year, "really open rehearsals," which Benotti describes as "a form of adult education" that allow the audience to ask musicians questions during a performance.
Eden's Edge has also encouraged the development of musical culture by sponsoring young musicians, who come to play with the ensemble for one of its concert series, and by commissioning original works from composers.
Eden's Edge will play two previous commissions, works by American composer Howard Rovics, at its gala celebration: "Journey, A Seagoing Narrative With Music," commissioned in 2006, and "Listening to the Sea Winds," from 2008, were both inspired by literary works.
The first features excerpts from 19th-century writer Richard Henry Dana's "Two Years Before the Mast," a memoir about seafaring life, which will be read to music by actor Gordon Baird.
"Sea Winds" is set to passages from the poetry of Gloucester poet Vincent Ferrini, who died in 2007. Members of the ensemble will take turns reading the poetry during the performance.
"It's really fun to do; it's tense," Benotti said.
If you go
What: Music at Eden's Edge 30th Anniversary Gala and Fundraiser Concert
When: Tomorrow at 8 p.m.
Where: East India Marine Hall, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem
More information: $60 per ticket at 978-270-4463 or www.edensedge.org; black tie optional.
