A steady stream of world-class string quartets has graced the seasons of Chamber Music Columbus, the local presenting organization recently known as the Columbus Chamber Music Society. Such ensembles still do appear locally under the group’s auspices. But Chamber Music Columbus has been branching out in the past decade.

Its sponsorship of last night’s performance by eighth blackbird is the latest example of this adventuresome attitude. The six-member ensemble of young artists, founded at the Oberlin College Conservatory in 1996, specializes in works by living composers, giving its repertoire a quality that’s as up-to-the-minute as possible without playing concerts entirely of world premieres.

Given this most recent blast of winter weather, the Southern Theatre was surprisingly filled to greet eighth blackbird, comprised of: Molly Alicia Barth, flutes; Michael J. Maccaferri, clarinets; Matt Albert, violin; Nicholas Photinos, cello; Matthew L. Duvall, percussion; and Lisa Kaplan, piano. The group played five works, the oldest dating from 2001 and all with instrumentation for the full ensemble.

The concert opened encouragingly, with a strong, engaging piece by Jennifer Higdon called Zaka. In three sections, the work quite subtly adhered to traditional benchmarks of good composition, pacing and drama while creating a soundscape as fresh and exciting as urban America.

Unfortunately, Gordon Fitzell’s violence, second on the program, failed to convince in its exploration of aesthetic concepts. Frederic Rzewski’s Les Moutons des Panurge is cleverly conceived and neatly executed, offering slowly changing textures and harmonies as its unusual architectural plan fulfills itself.

For understatement, nothing exceeded George Perle’s Critical Moments 2, a set of small, exquisitely crafted pieces of fleeting charms that begged to be heard a second time. The chief disappointment came at the end, with a work that promised much but underdelivered, Derek Bermel’s uneven Tied Shifts.

It is a pleasure to experience new music expertly performed and sensitively interpreted. Two things might enhance an eighth blackbird program: more stylistic variety in repertoire and more variety in instrumentation. Last night’s concert rarely departed from music both technically and aurally rigorous with too much sameness in approach, connecting chiefly via intellect or sonority. Admirable, perhaps. Narrow, a little, too.