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Throughout the history of Western music, classical, ‘serious’ music has been paired by composers with popular material, thereby pushing forward the development of the art form. Examples can be found as early as the Renaissance, where music for the Mass was based on the popular tune L’homme armé. Modern composers such as Bartók, Janáček, Ligeti and Stravinsky drew inspiration from folk songs or jazz. This tradition continues today: in recent years the spheres of contemporary classical and electronic club music (ranging from highly structured techno to experimental and ambient) have melded together and created new musical terrain, as demonstrated by the current success of ensembles such as Brandt Brauer Frick or Francesco Tristano – both past C3 Festival acts.

Fostering a new art, where classical and club music embrace each in a fertile creative exchange, is what the Club Contemporary CLASSICAL Festival is all about: C3 presents new music that falls into the grey zone between the genres of contemporary classical and electronic music. This grey zone is currently an area of extreme creativity and innovation due to the democratisation of technology as well as the prevalence and influence of electronic music. C3 offers a showcase platform for this activity, building access bridges between these realms of sound, inviting the audiences in both camps to cross over to the other side and discover.