After a year that has featured groups from around the globe, the Pittsburgh Chamber Music Society's 2008-09 season of 12 concerts is primarily a celebration of chamber ensembles from the United States, beginning with two venerable ensembles: the Emerson String Quartet and the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio.

"They have both been around for over 30 years and are considered at the top of their field, both Grammy winners," says Chris McGlumphy, the PCMS executive director. "It would be very easy to have [them] come back every year, but we do want to give opportunities to younger groups."

To that end, PCMS also has booked the Jupiter String Quartet, winner of the Cleveland Quartet Award; Imani Winds, a Grammy-nominated woodwind quintet; the Miro Quartet, multiple award winners and already established among the world's top quartets; and the Biava Quartet, Naumburg Chamber Music Award winners.

There are several local connections in the lineup. Imani's bassoonist Monica Ellis and Miro's cellist Joshua Gindele are Pittsburgh natives, and Biava's violist, Mary Persin is from Greensburg.

Imani Winds will perform works by Husa, Ligeti, Piazzolla; the Jupiter Quartet will offer Haydn and Beethoven, Shostakovich and Gubaidulina; and the Ysaye Quartet (the lone non-domestic quartet) will present Faure, Bartok and Franck.

But the star of the season is an American quartet situated in the prime of its artistic life: the Pacifica Quartet. It will perform "The Mendelssohn Project" -- a complete cycle of the composer's string quartets over three concerts in April. While the event marks Felix's 200th birthday, it also follows in the tradition of multiple-concert PCMS successes, the "Beethoven Project" in 2002 and the "Bartok Project" in 2005. Pacifica also will invite the Miro Quartet for a performance of Mendelssohn's famous Octet.

The main subscription series at Carnegie Music Hall again will be augmented by "Bridges: A Festival of String Quartets," a two-year series at the New Hazlett Theater on the North Side that this season has hosted four quartets.

Next year, the festival focuses "on the string quartet in Pittsburgh." The Biava Quartet will perform four concerts, each including a premiere of a PCMS-commissioned string quartet by regional composers Mark Fromm, Albert Glinsky, David Stock and Amy Williams. Chosen by subscribers last year via an online vote, "each composer's work will be in some way inspired by Pittsburgh," says McGlumphy.