If there's one common thread running through the Carlsbad Music Festival, it's "groove."

Festival founder and director Matt McBane uses groove frequently when he talks about the music being offered this weekend. While officially a chamber music festival, McBane has kept the stodgy factor so closely associated with the art form away from the proceedings.

"What we're going for with the groups that I choose are ensembles that are redefining chamber music for the 21st century in their own way," McBane explains.

Real Quiet, which landed on the lineup of last month's La Jolla Music Society's SummerFest roster, opens the festival Friday night at Carlsbad's Schulman Auditorium with two world premieres.

Ge Gan-Ru, considered to be China's first avant-garde composer, was commissioned by the ensemble to write a new piece for them, "Lover's Besiege." McBane says Gan-Ru, whose works have been performed by the New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong Philharmonics, "uses a lot of extended techniques of traditional Western instruments to imitate the sounds of Chinese acoustic instruments."

McBane has also composed a new piece for Real Quiet, a New York-based trio consisting of percussion, piano and cello. The untitled piece features an instrument not usually associated with chamber music: a drum set.

"The drum set in a chamber music setting is a tricky beast," McBane said. "The work allows the drummer to be a drummer so that they don't have to be confined to the traditional boundaries of classical music. It walks that fine line of having traditional chamber music elements and the modern sounds of a drum kit."

Other composers represented in the concert include Phil Kline, Annie Gosfield and Marc Mellits.

Audiences will recognize a familiar face among the trio. Cellist Felix Fan, raised in San Diego, is known for his local performances as well as his performances throughout the world. He also founded his own contemporary classical music festival based in La Jolla, Muzik3.

"The three of them (pianist Andrew Russo, percussionist David Cossin, and Fan) are such a stellar trio," McBane said. "Each is such a high level of individual musician. They have an edgy approach to chamber music that's really interesting."

Saturday night's concert features New York-based So Percussion playing repertoire by Steve Reich, David Lang, Paul Lansky and ensemble member Jason Treuting.

"Percussion ensembles play visceral and immediate kind of music," McBane said. "It's so exciting to watch. The music is really accessible."

So Percussion was born out of Yale's graduate program and has found the group expanding its sonic philosophy to include experimenting with a variety of traditional and nontraditional instruments, including specifically tuned teapots at this year's festival.

Returning for the fourth consecutive year is founding ensemble-in-residence Calder Quartet. It was Calder's first violinist, Ben Jacobson, who talked about the idea of creating a festival with McBane four years ago. Like McBane, Jacobson is a native of Carlsbad, and the two musicians devised the idea of a festival as a way of giving back to their hometown.

The two violinists grew up together playing music. The two went on to attend the University of Southern California, where McBane focused on composing and Jacobson helped found the Calder. Since then, the quartet of 20somethings has acquired a busy calendar of performances, including residencies at Manhattan's prestigious Juilliard School and the Colburn School of Music in Los Angeles.

For Sunday's performance, the Calder will collaborate with two composers who each infuse their music with elements of Balinese gamelan, the style of music often described as hypnotic that originated in Indonesia.

Christine Southworth, a Boston-based composer and winner of the Carlsbad Music Festival's composing competition, will have her new piece, "Honey Flyer," premiered by the quartet. Southworth is noted for her incorporation of robotics and other scientific elements in her music. Her piece was one of more than 50 submitted for consideration.

"It has a sense of groove to it," McBane said of Southworth's piece. "She uses some real elemental rock harmonies for some parts of it that's really effective. It's a pretty lively piece."

Also from Boston, composer and clarinetist Evan Ziporyn will join the Calder for his piece "Be-In," as well as perform a brief solo piece for his instrument that teems with influences of gamelan, "Tsmindao Ghmerto." The Calder opens its concert with Terry Riley's post-minimalist "Cadenza on the Night Plain."

Both Ziporyn and Southworth have connections to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Ziporyn heads the music and theater programs; Southworth is a 2002 graduate with degrees in mathematics and music.

McBane is a firm proponent of maintaining a dialogue with his audiences. Prior to each performance, informal talks with the composers and musicians are given. Following each concert, the audience is invited to a reception with the artists.

"I like having the continued dialogue with the audience," McBane said.

He feels he has a home field advantage. He said that most composers have interactions with only the musicians they are composing for. But with his festival, his musical network is expanded to include the audience.

Such interactive elements are a fundamental part of the festival that also includes school performances the week of the festival. So Percussion will also offer a performance-demonstration at 1 p.m. Saturday at Carlsbad's Museum of Making Music (free with paid museum admission).

"When I started the festival, there really wasn't much classically going on that I thought was high caliber and interesting," McBane said. "I think Carlsbad deserves to have some high-quality classical music."