The Millennium Trio is a chamber music group for the 1990s. A threesome of two men and a woman — all of whom have a fierce interest in late 20th century music, this Montreal-based ensemble of 20-year-olds overtly presents incorrigible youth and programming diversity as its selling points. Fortunately, it has the unusual good sense to back it up with astonishing musical ability.

Led by one of Canada’s hottest violinists, Scott St. John, the Millennium Trio, which also includes cellist Yegor Dyachkov and pianist Audrey Andrist, performed Sunday at the University of Maine. The concert originally was scheduled to be held at the Maine Center for the Arts, but when fewer than 500 tickets were sold, it was moved to Hauck Auditorium.

The smaller hall was a perfect venue for chamber music, which shines brightest in humble settings. The closer quarters probably comforted more than a few concert-goers who might have felt daunted by the enormous demands first-rate avant-garde music can make on a listener’s concentration.

In the case of Sunday’s concert, one can judge the audience only by its stillness — and this one was without a flicker of motion during the performances. A musician’s concentration, however, can be measured by the evenness of playing, the success with which a mood is created, or the carefulness with which a phrase is delivered. Around every turn, the Millennium Trio made real musical sense out of truly daring music.

An impetuous program, the likes of which are not frequently heard in the public domain, showed the refined breadth and taste of the musicians, all of whom have been showered in awards in their young yet predictably promising careers. A jazzy trio by Spanish composer Joaquin Turina; a more tormented one by living Russian composer Alfred Schnittke; and a colorful one by France’s Maurice Ravel gave the audience a full dose of modern exploratory music.

“Among Friends,” by Chinese-Canadian composer Chan Ka Nin, was the shortest piece on the program, and was superbly burnished. The encore was a musical ditty referred to as “jazzical” (because it combined jazz and classical styles) and, compared with the rest of the heady program, could rightfully be called a sweet nothing of a farewell treasure for the audience.