Daedalus String Quartet does “contemporary classical” with style.

While most string quartet music is hundreds of years old, now comes a new movement beginning to invigorate that soundscape. A plethora of young players and composers are pouring out of the schools and conservatories and they are more educated and brilliant than ever before.

At least that’s how many, including Chamber Music Monterey Bay’s Artistic and Education Director Amy Anderson, see it.

“The contemporary classical music of the ’70s and ’80s was written by academics for academics,” she says. “A lot of it was almost impenetrable for most listeners and turned the audiences off.”

Anderson has played cello since age 9.

“Since the ’90s, young composers have begun to invite the listener back in,” she says. “It might be atonal, but it can still be really beautiful and very compelling when done right.”

Local concertgoers might remember that being exactly the case when Daedalus last appeared here in 2012. They gave an emphatic reading of Joan Tower’s ultra-modern masterwork White Water which made the sounds of rushing water nearly palpable. Anderson remembers first meeting the ensemble in 2010. “We had about three hours of coaching per day,” Anderson says. “I got coached by them and they blew my socks off.”

Daedalus burst onto the scene by winning the prestigious Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2001. “We knew each other from the summer festivals,” violist Jessica Thompson says. “We were all in the same musical orbit.” The foursome boasts relationships with many contemporary composers.

“Working with living composers is a real thrill,” Thompson says. “It’s great to be able to ask a composer a question.”

And the program? A rarely performed Haydn that many people may not know; a 1959 Weinberg piece, a composer Thompson feels many more people should know; and Beethoven’s Opus 131.

“These are three great works,” Thompson says. “It kind of doesn’t get any better than that.”

THE DAEDALUS STRING QUARTET 8pm Saturday, Feb. 25. Sunset Center, San Carlos and Ninth, Carmel. $15-$52. 620-2048, www.chambermusicmontereybay.org