An ongoing effort to bring chamber music to new audiences took unique form in SF State’s McKenna Theater when the quartet Ethel took the stage, stomping their feet and shredding their bows throughout an inventive and high-energy performance.

It was clear the Julliard-trained group would take a different approach from the moment of their introduction. While the two violinists walked on stage in more traditional all-black clothing, violist Ralph Farris wore a black shirt with silver stars in a barbed wire pattern running down the front, and cellist Dorothy Lawson stood out from all the black in a rainbow of silky pastels.

“I wasn’t sure what to expect,” said Maria Hirschfeld, 26, a former psychology student at SF State. “But they played like a rock band.”

The Feb. 18 program included a wide range of influences, from big band to hard bop jazz and from bluegrass to Chicago blues. The opening numbers started the show with a subtle western feel and swelled into a freer, more relaxed jazz sound.

In the third piece, titled “Fred”, the quartet began picking up the aggression and energy. Head banging and stomping their feet on the stage. They dropped the volume for interludes and then bringing all the tension back to a head in a technique at home in both classical music and symphonic rock.

“My favorite piece was their encore,” said Margaux Hodges, a creative arts major at SF State. The group had asked the crowd if, for an encore, they would prefer a grungy blues number or a happy, upbeat fiddle closer. The crowd responded overwhelmingly for the blues, and the band closed out its 90 minute show with “Shuffle” by John King.

“The energy was just so high and their playing was wild!” Hodges said

During the performance of “Lighthouse”, an original piece by quartet violinist Cornelius Dufallo, Farris played his viola with such intensity his bow began shredding, loose strings hanging off the end and flying behind the bow like a cracked whip as he played.

“That happens in traditional music, too,” said Saul Gropman, artistic director for the Morrison Artists Series, which hosted the performance. “Performers will get a little crazy sometimes and the bows can’t take it.”

The Morrison Artists Series is the oldest running chamber music program currently running in San Francisco, and the only one boasting free admission, Gropman said. It’s also a part of the Morrison Chamber Music Center, which funds the Alexander String Quartet, frequent performers at McKenna Theater. The members of that quartet coach all the chamber music classes at SF State.

“I took over [as artistic director] in 1989, and the crowds in McKenna Theater would sometimes overflow into the hall. We’re talking about crowds of 700 people or more,” Gropman said.

“Now I’m bringing in more provocative groups, to try and broaden the audience for this kind of music. But even this crowd was more staid than I expected,” Gropman said. An estimated 300 people attended the show, many of them in their 60’s and older but with a strong showing of young adults as well.

The next performance in the Morrison series will be Trio D’Argent, a French flute trio with an electronic element, who will play McKenna Theater on March 18. The Alexander String Quartet will play next on April 4.