Chamber Music Monterey Bay opens the season with a quartet versed in both classic and wild.

To say that Pacifica String Quartet cellist Brandon Vamos grew up in a musical family would be an understatement.

“Sorry if I sound a bit distracted,” he volunteers at the beginning of a telephone interview. “But I was just listening to a live feed of my 86-year-old mother performing a violin sonata in Chicago.”

Add a violist father and brother and the stage was set. He started on violin then switched to cello. “Sometimes I think my parents just wanted a cello in the family to complete an in-house string quartet,” he quips.

Founded by Vamos and his wife, violinist Simin Ganatra, the quartet is now in its 30th season. Over that span, they have garnered accolades for both traditional classical work as well as for a bent toward modern compositions.

“We adore the classics, but we also get very excited about a variety of new music,” Vamos says. “We have been influenced by both since our earliest beginnings.”

This juxtaposition will be on full display in Carmel when the quartet offers a program of an avant garde work sandwiched between two timeless classics. Samuel Barber’s String Quartet in B Minor, op. 11, opens, the second movement of which is one of the most beloved melodic statements in the string quartet canon.

“Barber’s Adagio is so well-loved because it is so emotional,” Vamos says. “It can make you cry, but it can also make you smile.”

The avant garde composition is George Crumb’s Black Angels, featuring instrumentation usually not seen on the classical stage: gongs, water-filled wine goblets and amplified string instruments. There are also periods of spoken words, where the players count in Swahili, Hungarian and other languages.

“This work is emotionally grabbing, but in an entirely different way than the Barber,” Vamos explains. “I feel like I’m almost not even playing the cello at times in this composition. It’s safe to say that no one is going to be bored with this piece.”

The group will conclude with Antonín Dvorák’s String Quartet No. 12 in F Major (“American”), op. 96, which again is one of the most oft-performed works of the repertoire.

“The Dvorák, like the Barber, has a great number of simply elegant and memorable melodies,” Vamos says.

PACIFICA STRING QUARTET 7:30pm Saturday, Nov. 9. $25-$75. Sunset Center, San Carlos Street and 9th Avenue, Carmel. 620-2048, sunsetcenter.org