For almost 20 years, four Ames men have been at one with their instruments.

They have produced six CDs, toured the world and are easily accessible to Iowa State students.

The classical Iowa State Piano Quartet, featuring four faculty members of the music department, performs over 100 concerts a year through the department.

The group includes pianist William David, cellist George Work, violinist Mahlon Darlington and viola player Laurence Burkhalter.

“Even though we all teach and have our academic duties, this is what the four of us were hired to do, and this is what we mainly do,” David said.

“We have a rehearsal every day, so it takes a lot of time, but we enjoy it very much because it’s an important part of our lives,” he said.

In the quartet’s first concert of the year, three compositions will be featured.

“The first one is a romantic piece by Joseph Suk, a Czech composer, and it’s called the ‘Quartet in A Minor, Op.1,'” David said.

The second is a contemporary piece by Richard Willis called Variants.

The third is “Quartet in A Minor, Op.21,” by English composer Herbert Howells.

“They are all classical and not very well known, but they are very good,” David said.

The quartet is optimistic about its performances this year.

“We’ve been doing this for a long time and our concerts are usually quit well attended, so that’s a plus,” David said.

The Iowa State Piano Quartet will perform Sunday at 7:30 p.m. in the Music Hall Recital Hall.

The concert is free and open to the public.