At one point in his young life, Austin Wulliman was playing both piano and violin. He was unsure if music was really his thing, though.

Wulliman’s mom let him quit one of the two instruments. Wulliman stuck with violin. Good choice.

“Luckily, obviously, since I realized just a year or two later that I really liked it,” he said.

Wulliman liked it to the extent that music has become his livelihood. And that career path will lead the Bethany Christian High School graduate back to Goshen for a Friday night concert.

Wulliman is part of the Chicago-based ensemble Spektral Quartet. The group will present a program titled “IN/EX-trovert” at 7:30 p.m. in Goshen College Music Center’s Rieth Recital Hall.

His mother a music teacher by trade, Wulliman was exposed to music early on. At age 5, he began studying violin through the Goshen College Suzuki program.

Wulliman’s route toward a music career included detours.

“I definitely spent a lot of time playing sports,” he recalled. “I was big into wrestling in middle school, and various sports in high school. I thought it was uncool and not fun to be doing music, so I sort of rebelled against that a little bit.”

It was during his high school years, though, that Wulliman realized the possibility of music as a career.  

“I kind of jumped at that, I guess,” he said.

Wulliman attended Goshen College for two years and was traveling to Chicago for private violin lessons at Northwestern University. He then transferred to the University of Michigan, where he received his bachelor’s degree in music performance. He continued his studies with Blair Milton at Northwestern and received his master’s in music performance in violin performance there.

Spektral Quartet

Wulliman said he was still fresh out of school when Spektral Quartet got started.

“Kind of in pairs and trios we had worked together previously,” he said of the Spektral membership.

The group had its Chicago debut in the fall of 2010, and Wulliman said Spektral is in its second real concert season. The quartet is off to a heralded start.

TimeOut Chicago magazine listed Spektral’s debut concert as one of the top five classical performances of 2010. The Chicago Classical Review describes the group as having “a winning combination of superb playing and a fresh approach to repertoire choice and concert staging.”

Wulliman said Spektral was able to get press and important musicians at its shows early on.

“We’ve had a pretty smooth go of it starting up, due in no small part to all of us already having reputations in Chicago separate from the quartet,” he said.

The quartet’s “IN/EX-trovert” show at GC will include Brahms’ “Quartet in A Minor,” Haydn’s “Quartet Op. 77 No. 2” and Thomas Ades’ “Arcadiana.”

A life in music

In addition to his Spektral gig and violin instruction, Wulliman is also the program director for Ensemble Dal Niente. That group, according to its website, is a Chicago-based contemporary music ensemble dedicated to the promotion and advancement of contemporary music.

Put another way, Wulliman is a busy man. And his business is music.

To young people considering the same livelihood, Wulliman urges finding their fun in practicing and preparing for a career. The musical life also requires a full commitment, he indicated.

“It’s not a 9 to 5 thing,” Wulliman said. “If one were to actually log hours of work that I do for music, it would be kind of comical the amount of time I spend doing it.

“So if you’re not interested in music to the extent where it’s your hobby as well as your career — and you want to spend all day thinking and living and breathing it — then you’re probably not going to find much success. Most people I know who are finding success as performers are kind of obsessed with it in a certain way.”

If you want to go

What: Spektral Quartet concert

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday

Where: Goshen College Music Center’s Rieth Recital Hall

Tickets: $7 for adults, $5 for students and senior citizens, available at the door an hour before the concert

More information: Visit the website spektralquartet.com