If the Kronos Quartet were a Cincinnati-based ensemble, playing regular weekend concerts at places like Memorial Hall or Music Hall, the entertainment venues of Main Street would have stiff competition.

        For almost 20 years, the quartet has been on a mission to bring new, experimental music to the masses via first-rate performance. As welcome at jazz festivals as in great concert halls, and as unique in their interpretations of Shostakovich as John Cage, the Kronos Quartet's range in repertoire is enormous — and readily apparent at Thursday night's performance at Miami University's Hall Auditorium.

        As part of the school's Performing Arts series, the quartet performed several pieces from its latest CD, Caravan.

        Amid a backdrop that changed colors as the pieces changed texture, the members rapped the wood of their stringed instruments like drums. In others they played small cymbals or a gong.

        And welcoming the modern meant more than a first violinist sporting lime green leather pants — sound effects and playing above prerecorded parts enhanced the live performance, lending added depth and dimension to the concert. Fellow string players can relax. If this is present-day quartet music, there is reason to anticipate the future. It's good. Really good.

        The quartet performed two world premieres — Cuatro Milpas (Four Cornfields), arranged by Stephen Prutsman, by an unknown composer, and Tabu, by Margarita Lecuona, arranged by Osvaldo Golijov.

        Vietnamese composer P.Q. Phan was there to hear his piece performed. The work, Three Scenes from An Duong Vuong: Submersion in Trust and Betrayal, is an interpretation a Vietnamese legend. A loud shout begins the work, followed by the playing of small percussion instruments before launching into an elaborate melody that is both traditional and ahead of its time.

        Similar was Aleksandra Vrebalov's Pannonia Boundless. The work conjures images of gypsy life and roaming the wide open landscape of the Mediterranean and Northeast European landscape.

        Playing a continuous chord cycle over a prerecorded tape, the quartet delivered a cohesive, rock solid version of Steve Reich's Triple Quartet. The last piece before intermission, Mr. Reich's was the only American work performed which added to its uniqueness in sound and structure.

        The night's closer, Peteris Vasks, Quartet No. 4, was a U.S. premiere. The Latvian composer tackles intense subject matter. In this piece the emotions connected with destruction and man's struggle to conquer odds through love and affirmation.

        In all five movements, motifs from Latvian folk music weave around constantly changing dynamics and textures. The fifth movement, Meditation, is a soft rendering that ends with the quartet resting in silence.

        Although the piece calls for muted strings, the Kronos Quartet sounded more like a symphony orchestra, as it did all night, telling the stories of nine cutting edge composers not with words — but through music.

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