Four women formed the Amaranth Quartet at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 2014, and the group made its Washington debut Wednesday night, closing out the season of free concerts at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The results were mixed, with two intriguing world premieres bookended by less assured performances of older music.

Present Music concerts are themselves unique creations. The contemporary chamber concert series to be performed this week at four venues – Thursday through Saturday – began with only a title: “Give Chance a Piece.” It was PM ensemble member Eric Segnitz who came up with the title, “and I thought the phrase, and its various meanings, had merit,” says Artistic Director Kevin Stalheim. What began as a daft pun wandered in many directions as it came together.

“I’ve been wanting to do more composers that are outside of the dead white European tradition,” to reflect “where we are in today’s world.” Stalheim observes. The concert represents that diversity: three young women composers with roots in Iran, Armenia, Serbia and India. Their compositions often reflect their heritage and personal experiences. Non-Western musical sources add fresh perspective to their music.

In a program entitled speakOUT, Hotel Elefant, a new-composer collective, performed musical narratives ranging from horseback riding in Northern Iran to the public suicide of a Pennsylvanian State Treasurer. Combining seasoned chamber musicians, new works, and a cabaret-style venue, Hotel Elefant delivered an evening of captivating music as a form of storytelling.

Last night at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM), Sahba Aminikia gave his Graduate Recital. He is currently studying composition with both Dan Becker and David Garner, having previously attended the St. Petersburg State Conservatory in Russia to study composition with Boris Ivanovich Tishchenko.

Sahba Aminikia’s Deltangi-Ha was premiered by the Delphi Trio Sunday afternoon at Old First Church. The new work is a series of what the composer calls “postcards” evoking memories from his life in Iran. It began with a strong hook — intense gestures uttered over a vehement ostinato in the piano, representing the bustling metropolis of Tehran. The flavor of Middle Eastern music was immediately palpable but not overpowering. It set the composer’s voice as strongly influenced by his native country’s idiom yet also undeniably informed by classical training and the world of academic new music — a healthy balance. In a preconcert talk, Aminika, whose string quartet was premiered by Kronos last year, remarked that his aim was to completely avoid the sound of “European sentimental music.” That’s pretty difficult to do with just piano, violin, and cello.

Last week, to inaugurate a three-year relationship with this city’s most adventurous arts complex, the quartet revived the piece in a new production and, with it, reawakened the anxiety and despair of that woeful conflict. The players fiddle, wander the stage, strike gongs, shake maracas and, in the piece’s most haunting episode, three of the musicians on illuminated platforms bow crystal goblets, while the cellist intones a lamenting solo. The years have not muted the quartet’s buzzing attacks in the famous “Night of the Electric Insects” section. Black Angels disturbs still.