Wichita State University will treat Wichita audiences to a performance by the acclaimed Ames Piano Quartet at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 6, in Wiedemann Recital Hall. It’s a Connoisseur Series presentation of the College of Fine Arts.

Tickets are $20, with discounts available, through the College of Fine Arts Box Office, (316) 978-3233.

The Ames Piano Quartet is the resident chamber music ensemble at Iowa State University and holds a unique position in the chamber music field as one of the few piano quartets in the world. The combination of lush string sound blended with the orchestral quality of the piano produces, as The Washington Post described, “one of the most heavenly combinations of instruments around.”

Wichita State's director of orchestras, Mark Laycock, is well-acquainted with all four members of the quartet.

"I am particularly pleased to have these artists performing in Wichita: They were colleagues of mine at Iowa State University," said Laycock, who holds the Ann Walenta Faculty of Distinction Endowed Professorship at WSU. "Their commercially released recordings have garnered rave reviews, and their live performances are simply electrifying. This concert is not to be missed."

The ensemble has toured throughout the United States, including giving concerts in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Denver, San Diego and Washington, D.C. Its world stage has included performances in Canada, Mexico, France, Austria and the Far East. Most recently the Ames Quartet spent a week concertizing and teaching in Havana, Cuba, the first American chamber music group to perform there in more than years.

Its members, all Iowa State music faculty, include Mahlon Darlington, violinist; George Work, cellist; Jonathan Sturm, violist; and William David, pianist. Since its formation in 1976, the ensemble has recorded eight compact discs, including six for the Dorian label, all of which have received national and international critical acclaim. Fanfare called its CD of the Dvorak quartets, “one of the best chamber music recordings of the century.”

As The Los Angeles Times wrote of a recent Ames Piano Quartet concert, “The four generated nearly limitless excitement . . . arching lyricism, poetic eloquence and great accuracy.”