The Ames Piano Quartet’s local musicians will perform a less-than-local set on Sunday at the Martha-Ellen Tye Recital Hall.

“It’s a Czech concert,” said George Work, professor of music and cellist for the quartet.

“The recording label that works with us wants to do a Czech album, and so we’re getting ready for that by doing two of the three pieces that will be on the CD. The Nov k and Martinu [pieces] are both going to be on that new upcoming CD, which will be our eighth CD.”

Jonathan Sturm, associate professor of music and violist for the quartet, says the Czech pieces are very romantic and have many similarities to European music of the same time period, such as Johannes Brahms, Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, and other late Romantic Era composers.

“They have a very rich, big sound,” Sturm says. “The Martinu is very jazzy, but not like American jazz. It’s very rhythmic.”

Czech music sometimes has a little more folk influence than some other European music, Work says.

In addition to Work and Sturm, William David, professor of music and pianist, and Mahlon Darlington, professor of music and violinist, make up the remainder of the quartet. The Ames Piano Quartet was founded in 1976, but has existed with this lineup for five years.

In those five years, the quartet has had the opportunity to travel to many places with the help of a manager from Philadelphia and the dedication of the musicians in the group.

The group estimates that they have performed in about 300 to 400 different locations in France, Mexico, Canada, Austria and most of the United States.

“We’re going to Cuba in January,” Sturm says.

“I’m not sure we can prove it, but I believe we’re one of the first American chamber ensembles to go to Cuba since the [1959] revolution.”

The members of the quartet believe that one of the reasons they are able to play at so many different locations is because of the rehearsal time they put into preparing performances.

“We practice eight hours a week together as a group in addition to our regular practice,” Darlington says.

But even for these musicians, rehearsing eight hours a week is not always an easy thing to do.

“Sometimes being up eight hours a week, up meaning being on, being ready to be at your best, being focused eight hours a week [is difficult]. There are a lot of times when I think each one of us would like to call this rehearsal off, but when we have this many concerts, and this much music we have to learn, you have to be there,” Sturm says.

Darlington says playing in the Ames Piano Quartet is the part of his job that allows the most creativity and also provides him with camaraderie.

“This group gets along very well,” Darlington says. “We respect each other both as people and as musicians”

Sturm agrees.

“Everybody who goes to be a musician or trains to be a musician wants to make music at the highest possible level and have people come and hear that,” he says.

Sarah Bauer, senior in chemical engineering and music, saw the quartet perform about two years ago and was impressed with how well it played together.

“I remember thinking it was neat to be able to see how much they communicated with each other while performing,” Bauer says.

Sunday’s concert will include three Czech pieces: “Quartet in C Minor, Op. 7” by Vitezslav Nov k, “Quartet in D Major, Op. 23” by Antonin Dvor k and “Quartet (1942)” by Bohuslav Martinu.