In a month, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble will travel to Scotland to perform in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Yet here in Pittsburgh it still sits on the periphery.

Friday night was the opening of PNME's summer season and, led by Kevin Noe, it again presented one of the most adventurous and excellent concerts this year. Yet, the City Theatre upstairs space was far from packed. Isn't it time more Pittsburghers and local chamber music devotees remove PNME from the fringe and make it a priority to hear and see what this group is doing?

Contemporary music can be hit or, more often, miss, but I am continually amazed by artistic director Noe's ability to choose music profound, accessible and diverse. Combine that with his flair for theatrical presentation, and the concerts, like the one Friday, leave you practically breathless.

Take just the first half: Out of darkness came voices shouting and a pensive and liquid bass clarinet (Campbell MacDonald) in Jerome Kitzke's "Regina Takes the Holy Road." Next, in the opposite extreme of quick sonic decay, thrust percussionist David Skidmore into the lights in Scott Lindroth's rhythmically infectious, calliope-like "Bell Plates."

Just as one's left and right brain started talking to each other again, a piano trio by John Musto leveled the entire brain with what can only be described as a fully (neo)-Romantic work of finely wrought, emotional music. Its convincing development of sleek rhythms and themes proved that if you say you don't like contemporary music, you just aren't hearing enough.

Pitt composer Eric Moe's "Superhero" brought all the instrumentalists out to explore our culture's obsession with comic heroes. Moe's pulsing, active score exquisitely pulled back in a movement called "Existential Crisis," in which a probing cello line (Norbert Lewandowski) reveals a caped crusader asking what's the point of it all. It is one of Moe's best works.

There's more "new" than usual in PNME's roster. No fewer than five of the seven musicians debuted Friday. The reasons for the departed are varied, but with Noe's coaching it didn't sound like a makeover.

Some of the ensemble's problems did come to the fore, but the musicianship is clear. Pianist Jim Johnston was especially impressive, displaying deft touch throughout and when anchoring baritone Timothy Jones' hilarious and histrionic performance of Derek Bermel's "Three Songs on Poems" by Wendy S. Walters. Noe's only miscue was ending the energetic concert with Jacob Druckman's subdued (and meandering) "Come Round."

In any case, here's hoping more concertgoers "come round" to the remaining PNME concerts this summer.