With the intention of educating, entertaining and invigorating audiences, the third annual Carlsbad Music Festival brings classical and contemporary arrangements of music to North County. The festival will be split into two segments. From Monday through Thursday Carlsbad Music Festival musicians will have educational outreach programs in schools throughout Carlsbad. This will allow students an opportunity to work hand-in-hand with professionals and ask questions relevant to their specific music interests, according to festival founder and director Matthew McBane.

For the second portion of the festival, McBane will present the New York-based NOW Ensemble, the Southern Californiabased The Calder Quartet and The Ensemble, a 20-piece group co-directed by McBane and Tom Osborne, of Los Angeles. “In addition to the notable performances by the various ensembles, we will hold receptions and forums where the community, the composers and the musicians can discuss the new works and all the music being performed,” McBane said. “Much of what we will present is cutting-edge in respect to the traditional style of music created for these particular arrangements of musicians.”

In years past, McBane has provided audiences with original music by the Freestyle Los Angeles Creative Orchestra, the California Quartet, cellist Peter Jacobson and a unique 25-minute multimedia piece composed by McBane and performed by The Calder Quartet titled “Ghost in the Machine.”

This year features two premiers: a new piece titled “Grip” by New York resident and composer Ryan Carter, the winner of Carlsbad Music Festival’s fi rst Composers Competition and a new piece by McBane, arranged specifi cally for NOW Ensemble, titled “Synthetic Night.”

“We are all very excited to present a new work by Matt (McBane),” NOW Ensemble artistic director Judd Greenstein said.

“One of the things about our ensemble is that we have a unique instrumentation. There is no other group that is like us, and partly what that means is that we rely on new works written for the ensemble in order to have anything to play at all.”

The festival will deliver pieces performed by NOW Ensemble, such as “Cloudbank” by Mark Dancigers; “All Together NOW” by Patrick Burke ; and “Rock Me Samuels” by Judd Greenstein.

“I think what we bring to the table as an ensemble is a shared perspective of both composers and performers,” Greenstein said.

“Everyone in the group is young and has widely diverse musical interests, and I think that comes across in the type music that we play and in the type of music that people tend to write for us.”

In addition to the premier of Carter’s piece, The Calder Quartet will be performing “String Quartet No. 13” by Shostakovich and “String Quartet” by Ravel. Following The Ensemble’s presentation of “Granular Memory” by McBane, “Sweet Air” by David Lang, “The Viola in My Life 2” by Morton Feldman and “Eight Lines” by Steve Reich, a site-specific performance by The Ensemble and select members of NOW Ensemble will be featured in the library’s outdoor courtyard.

“The site-specific performance is intended to be enjoyed on multiple levels,” McBane said.

“Audience members can indulge themselves in intimate settings with performers by maintaining a close proximity to the musicians or, if they choose to maintain a distance, patrons will be privy to the grandiose music experience of a 20- plus ensemble.”

With a finger on the pulse of experimentation and originality, the Carlsbad Music Festival promises to provide audiences with “classical music in the broadest sense of the word and an unforgettable experience,” McBane said.