Michael Andrews grew up in Wisconsin going frequently to art museums and galleries, with a mother and an aunt who both were art teachers.

One day his musical life as a cellist and his art upbringing came together when he saw the great Cleveland Quartet play a concert at New York’s Mary Boone Gallery.

“It broke down the barriers for people who think classical music, and especially string quartets, are boring or elitist. Just being in a beautiful space was more inviting,” Andrews said. “And so I thought ‘Music in Beautiful Spaces’ would be a great title for a series.”

In 1997, Andrews formed the South Beach Chamber Ensemble to do just that, and for 15 years now the group has been performing programs called “Music in Beautiful Spaces.”

On Tuesday night, Andrews and three other musicians – pianist Ciro Fodere and violinists Luis Fernandez and Tony Seepersad – played the first of three “Beautiful Spaces” concerts they’ll give this week devoted to piano trios by American composers (Fernandez and Seepersad alternate in the violin seat). Tuesday night’s concert was at Barry University’s Andy Gato Gallery, and Thursday night the four will play at the new Coral Gables Museum. They’ll close the series Sunday afternoon at the Miami Beach Botanical Garden.

Andrews, 60, who began his cello career in Venezuela, founded the ensemble after returning to music from 13 years in the restaurant industry in New York and South Florida, including several years of work as a pastry chef at The Raleigh Hotel in Miami Beach.

“One of the perks of being on my board is that I cook dinner for them,” said Andrews, who also teaches with the Miami Music Project. “We have dinner and a board meeting, and that’s how I entice them to stay on the board.”

The programs Thursday and Sunday include the “Piano Trio of Leonard Bernstein,” written when the composer was just 19 and a student at Harvard, and the “Café Music” of Paul Schoenfield, written in 1986 and probably the composer’s most popular work. The series also includes the premiere of “Orion Trio,” a work by Andrew Logan, a recent graduate of the New World School of the Arts.

Logan’s piece is dedicated to the memory of his father Henry, a Miami artist and poet who founded the “Palmetto Review” and the Art Factory, and who died in October. Andrew Logan writes in his program note that the three movements of the trio “are named after the stars in Orion’s belt,” referring to the constellation. “The pianist, cellist and violinist are the ‘three wise men,’ as the stars are also often called, who have had to make music of my irregular notation, vague, esoteric dynamics, and last-minute revisions.”

Andrews said the piece is relatively tonal and “very dramatic,” and at one point evokes Philip Glass in its steady-state harmonic background. “And then there’s an homage to his father with a section that’s a funeral march,” he said.

The Bernstein trio, although an early work, has much of the composer’s characteristic style already in place, Andrews said. “What I like about it is it’s full of his personality, his quirkiness, his fun and his rhythm,” he said, adding that there’s a tempo change almost every half-page. “It’s surprising and delightful.”

Schoenfield’s “Café Music “was inspired by the composer’s experience as a house pianist in a Minneapolis steakhouse, and references a good deal of popular music. “It’s a real crowd-pleaser,” Andrews said. “There are blues, jazz and swing elements, and the slow movement is gorgeous. It’s like a languid afternoon on a riverboat in New Orleans.” [Here’s a recording of the piece.]

In addition to the trio concerts, the ensemble is making appearances this Saturday and next, this time with violist Rafael Ramirez, in 20-minute concerts at the Normandy Village Farmers Market in Miami Beach. The project is called Mozart on the Move, and it features the musicians playing Mozart and other pieces in unexpected places such as Macy’s, Whole Foods and the Score gay bar on Lincoln Road.

“Last year we did about 12 performances, and we connected with about 3,000 people,” Andrews said. “We played everything from Mozart to Lady Gaga.” This year, they’ve added arrangements of Coldplay’s “Yellow” and a song by The Shins to their roving repertoire.

“We really want to inspire people to think about what we do in a new way,” he said. The free popup concerts are set for 11:30 a.m., noon and 12:20 p.m. this Saturday, and at 11:30 a.m. and noon May 12.

Additionally, this will be the seventh year of South Beach Up North, in which Andrews mounts free chamber music concerts in his hometown of Wausau, Wis., in mid-July. And the group also will be working with Fort Lauderdale-based puppeteer Jim Hammond on a presentation called “Mozart Meets Gaga” at Miami Beach Senior High on Sept. 30.

All of it adds up to a way of thinking about classical music that is very much in keeping with the modern approach to outreach and barrier-breaking.

“It’s all music. Music is music,” Andrews said, whether it’s a string quartet or a house music rave. “There is a history of music, and we’re part of that, but we’re happy to interest people in new ways… It’s all connected.”

The South Beach Chamber Ensemble plays at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Coral Gables Museum and at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Miami Beach Botanical Garden. Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for students and seniors if bought online; $25 and $15 respectively at the door. For more information, call 305-673-2183 or visit sobechamberensemble.org.