It’s easy to think of the faculty at YSU’s Dana School of Music primarily as academicians, with bifocals balanced on the ends of their noses, an open book in one hand and chalk dust on the other. Once you hear them perform, it’s hard to think of them that way at all.

The recent faculty chamber music recital was just such an image-morphing experience. These folks are so incredibly skilled as performers it’s hard to imagine them having time for the classroom; they must practice constantly.

A word about Bliss Recital Hall: Gorgeous. An intimate theater setting with raised, semicircular seating for a comfortable couple hundred around the floor level stage; NO external interference (you say there was a tornado outside?) and acoustics so clear you hear every letter of “ping” without the hint of an echo.

Ten of Dana’s finest lent their skills to the showcase of contemporary (mostly 20th century) classical composers, whose works exemplify the evolution of the genre. For instance, the “Parable for Solo Trumpet” played by Christopher Krummel was a kissing cousin of free-form jazz, in three parts delineated by the use of two different mutes and none.

Saxophonist James Umble played a Karg-Elert piece of 17 short variations on a four-note theme, and another, by Australian composer Ross Edwards which described the ethos of his country’s aborigines. Umble found the latter while pursuing one of his favorite leisure activities, searching composers on the internet.

Soprano Misook Yun, flutist Kathryn Thomas Umble and guitarist Francois Fowler opened the show with “Pavane” by the earliest of the composers, Gabriel Faure, and then Umble and Fowler returned for the tripartite “Toward the Sea,” Toru Takemitsu’s musical picture of Cape Cod.

The evening’s finale was the complex and spirited “Septett fur Blasinstrumente” (winds) by Paul Hindemith, which featured each of the instrumentalists and the interplay among them. Kathryn Thomas Umble and Christopher Krummel were joined by Tedrow Perkins (oboe), Alice Wang (clarinet), Christopher Bowmaster (bass clarinet), Donald W. Byo (bassoon) and Eric Shields (french horn).

The concert was a reminder that, before they were teachers, the Dana faculty were — and still are — dedicated and extremely talented musical performers, who bring their lifelong commitment to their profession; in this case teaching by exquisite example.