William David, professor of music, and Jonathan Sturm, associate professor of music, simply want to entertain.

But that’s not all — they want young people to challenge the short attention span that today’s society has attributed to them.

Sturm and David, along with professors of music Mahlon Darlington and George Work, make up the Ames Piano Quartet. The quartet is a nationally touring chamber music ensemble, whose home is Iowa State.

Although the quartet performs classical pieces, David, the group’s pianist, says he wants to dispel the stuffy impression students have of classical music.

“People who come, regardless of age, are rewarded,” says David. “They enjoy it on even the simplest of levels.”

Sturm, violist for the ensemble, says the experience is compared to seeing a rock band perform and explains that attending this concert is like watching a popular band play, except that the audience does not talk or dance while listening, which he feels may be difficult for younger audiences.

“Young people don’t want to sit that long, because they have been trained by today’s fast-paced society to have short attention spans,” Sturm says.

Sturm says this can be overcome if people decide to look at time differently for a few hours and allow themselves to have an intellectual and emotional experience with the music.

The ensemble will perform the Iowa premiere of a new composition entitled “Carolina Reveille” by Paul Schoenfield. Sturm describes the work as a jazzy yet sophisticated take on the popular song “Carolina in the Morning.”

“The composition takes this popular tune and presents it as if you’re waking up, gradually getting more energetic,” Sturm says. “Eventually, you come out of the fog.”

The popular song is revealed as the inspiration with that illusion of coming out of the fog or waking up.

The quartet will be performing the new piece, along with two more traditional selections that both Sturm and David say the audience will appreciate.

Since the group’s inception in 1976, it has been able to travel around the world to spread its music, performing in numerous states across the country and in several foreign countries. The experience has taught the quartet a valuable lesson, Sturm says.

“Music really is an international language,” he says.