It does not necessarily come with the ostentation of booming drums or the sound of trumpets, but for many of its lovers that is just what gives chamber music its appeal.

String Quartet in C Major, Op. 76, No. 3, is a four-movement piece by Joseph Haydn popularly known as Emperor. The piece, completed in 1797, was Haydn's last complete set of string quartets and provided the melody for the national anthems of both Austria from 1797-1918 and Germany since 1922.

When the Mila Quartet, a string group consisting of Zhu Ke and Ci Huan, both violinists, Liu Zhangjuan, a violist, and Lyu Xinyang, a cellist, prepared to perform at the concert hall of Tianjin Juilliard School last October, the players decided to set themselves the challenging task of performing Haydn's Emperor.

It would be the quartet's debut after it had been formed five months earlier. By autumn the four musicians were studying for the US-accredited, two-year master of music degree in chamber music at Tianjin Julliard School as the first fellowship string quartet.

"That piece of music by Haydn is a touchstone of a string quartet's potential," says the violinist Zhu Ke. "We wanted to put on our best performance as a string quartet with that piece of music, and we succeeded."

The piece is also in the repertoire for their first national tour, which opened with a performance in Shanghai on April 23 and in Quanzhou, Fujian province, on April 24, and that will take them to Nanchang, Jiangxi province, on May 22, and Xiamen, Fujian province, on May 23.

Apart from work by Haydn, the quartet's tour program consists of Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8, in C Minor, Op. 110, Maurice Ravel's String Quartet in F Major, Beethoven's String Quartet No. 4, Op. 18, and String Quartet No. 4 by Bela Bartok.

Though the Mila Quartet is still young, it had already performed at two major venues before beginning its current tour: Tianjin Grand Theater and the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing.

Chamber music, composed for smaller groups, does not quite have the grandeur of music played by symphony orchestras in large concert halls or theaters, but is performed in smaller venues with no conductor.

As the appreciation of Chinese audiences for Western classical music grows, so too has the number of venues for chamber music in every corner of the country, in small concert halls, galleries, museums, commercial areas and sometimes even in tranquil, secluded gardens.

For classical aficionados, of course, music is the main draw of any chamber music series. For others, chamber music offers a more intimate experience of classical music. Chamber music also highlights individual players, who express their subtle and refined musical skills and ideas with their instruments.

Zhu, 27, the Mila Quartet's first violinist, was introduced to the instrument by his grandfather, a classical music lover. Zhu began to play when he was 3 and moved to Beijing to study at the primary school affiliated to the Central Conservatory of Music. From 2013 to 2019 he studied at the Manhattan School of Music in New York and received his bachelor's and master's degrees in Violin Performance there before returning to China to work with the symphony orchestra of the Central Conservatory of Music.

Ci, 26, the quartet's second violinist, has been a friend of Zhu since they met in the Central Conservatory of Music middle school. They both later worked with the conservatory's symphony orchestra.

When COVID-19 broke out early last year orchestras around the world all but fell silent.

About this time, Zhu, Ci, and the cellist Lyu, 25, learned that the Tianjin Juilliard School, the first overseas campus of the New York-based performing arts conservatory, included a major in chamber of music in its graduate program. So the three decided to apply to enroll in the program, which offers a full scholarship.

With the support of another violinist, Weigang Li, a member of the Shanghai Quartet, they found their last member violist Liu, 25 and received online training during the pandemic.

They are now studying with members of the Shanghai Quartet at Tianjin Juilliard School. In November 2019 members of the Shanghai Quartet, Weigang Li, Angelo Xiang Yu, both violinists, Honggang Li, a violist, and Nicholas Tzavaras, a cellist, joined the faculty of Tianjin Juilliard School.

They named the quartet Mila, after mi and la in a musical scale. The two notes are also called perfect fourth, a traditional musical term representing a unique relationship between two pitches.

"We all have the experience of playing chamber music since it's part of our education in college. But it's quite different from playing as a full-time string quartet," Zhu says. "Each member has their own personality, which allows us to be harmonic and balanced in our musical interpretation."

The violinist Ci, who received his master's degree in Violin Performance from Johns Hopkins University's Peabody Institute and his bachelor's degree from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music in Singapore, says: "When we perform as a string quartet at Tianjin Juilliard School, it means that we take our classes in the morning and do rehearsals in the afternoon. We spend lots of time together, which allows us to explore our sounds."

The violist Liu, who received her master's degree in Viola Performance from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, Texas, and holds a bachelor's degree from Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music in Singapore, says: "Chamber music allows audiences to experience classical close up, and it's a great way for them to learn about a composer."

Liu recalls a story about her early experience with chamber music, when she was a student of the Sichuan Conservatory of Music aged 17 and she attended a Shanghai Quartet concert.

The quartet was formed by Honggang Li and his brother, Weigang Li in 1983. The following year it won second prize at the Portsmouth International Quartet Competition in England. It made its debut in New York in 1987.

"The concert hall was packed and it seemed that all the school's teachers and students were there," Liu says. "After the performance I was totally overwhelmed. The music just kept on vibrating in that room and lingered in my head."

Weigang Li, a violinist, says the quartet long nursed a wish to let people know about its experience and what it has learned as a string quartet over more than 30 years.

"We toured abroad in the 1990s, and there was little opportunity for us to perform in China. Then, in 2009, the Shanghai Quartet became a resident string quartet of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and that gave us more opportunity to perform for Chinese audiences."

Li began playing the violin when he was 5 and went on to attend the Shanghai Conservatory Middle School when he was 14, in 1979. Three years later he was selected through the first cultural exchange program between Shanghai and San Francisco to study for one year at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

"With economic development and the rise of the middle class in China, many new concert halls have sprung up and many children study classical music, which has made China an exciting country for classical music," he says.

On the growing availability of chamber music, he says: "I think the diversity allows us to be able to engage new audiences, which is really important for the future of classical music."

Last Dec 16 the Shanghai Quartet gave its first recital after the violinist Angelo Xiang Yu joined the quartet at the Tianjin Juilliard School. It was also the quartet's first recital after the pandemic set in.

Yu says he started playing chamber music when he was 13.

"I was studying at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music middle school. There were only two chamber groups in the entire school. It was clear that most students eventually wanted to be a soloist, and chamber music was regarded as being for the less talented. That notion really saddened me, because I believe chamber music is the foundation of musical studies."

Yu, who was born in Inner Mongolia autonomous region in 1988, won first prize in the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition for Young Artists in Oslo in 2010.

He met his first chamber music coach, Song Yang, in 2001, a first for both of them: Yu's first year of chamber music study and Song's first year as a chamber music coach.

"We did a lot of experimentation in terms of repertoire and skill training, trying different approaches and styles," Yu says.

He grew up listening to the Alban Berg Quartet and the Amadeus Quartet, but at the moment, he says, his "absolute favorite group" is Quatour Ebene of France.

"Their complete Beethoven string quartet Album is simply stunning", Yu says.

Unlike a symphony orchestra, a chamber music group can be played anywhere-"it can be at the 2,800-seat-Carnegie Hall, or at someone's living room", Yu says.

It is much easier for chamber musicians to connect with the audience in live concerts because it is much more intimate compared to symphonies, he says.

Yu, one of the Mila quartet's teachers, says the group hardworking and professional.

"Even though they are still new as a string quartet, they have made rapid progress in a short time. They devote themselves to a lot of practice and rehearsal."

MILA Quartet has obtained a contract with Wu Promotion, one of the major agent companies in China promoting classical music, which is supporting their current tour.

"Such tours give young artists an incredible opportunity to engage with audiences in live concerts," Yu says. "I'm proud to be their teacher."