"Exciting!" That's the word that keeps recurring when you talk to Amy Sue Barston and Edward Klorman, the founders and artistic directors of the Canandaigua LakeMusic Festival. That's not because they're inarticulate, but because they're true believers in chamber music, that supposedly dowdy music intended for the blue-rinse crowd. Barston, a 34-year-old cellist, and Klorman, a 27-year-old violist, are out to undo that bit of specious common wisdom at the fifth annual Festival that runs August 21-30 at several sites in Canandaigua.

"We've explored a lot of new ways to break down stereotypes about what a concert can be like and who it's for," says Klorman. "I want to get more people excited about this music that I love."

The festival's first goal is good music played excitingly, but both artistic directors and many of their musician friends are also out to broaden the audience for music they're so enthusiastic about. They seem to be having some success. One subscriber wrote last year, "When I heard ‘chamber music,' it sounded like something for my grandparents. I had no idea there was such variety or excitement to it."

The LakeMusic Festival features mostly young musicians, among them the all-female Claremont Trio (violinist, cellist, and pianist aged, respectively, 29, 29, and 31) along with the Borromeo String Quartet and a 12-year-old whiz of a pianist named Llewelyn Werner, who will be playing Brahms. The rest of the music ranges from Mozart to Mendelssohn, Dvorak to Ravel. Barston confirms that most of the musicians in the festival are in their 20s and 30s, but "we also wanted to select the most vibrant, most versatile, most energy-embracing musicians we know."

According to Klorman, "Say ‘chamber music' and a lot of people envision old men in tuxes, but wait until you hear The Claremont Trio. They are so dynamic and they have made such waves with their performing. They go all over the world, also to Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, and then end up in Canandaigua."

"Chamber music is a kind of conversation," says Julia Bruskin, the Claremont Trio's cellist, who took her first music lesson at the age of 4. "Even in a performance, at its best, it feels as if we're creating new ideas as we go. We're communicating with one another while we play. It's in the way we bring the music to life so it's vibrant, so people don't feel as if they're just watching but are emotionally involved."

Barston and Klorman believe that their main obstacle is the public's perception that you need some qualifications to enjoy classic music. Bruskin agrees. "It's a misconception," she says, "because the music speaks very directly." To guide the audience, the musicians speak for 15 minutes just before each concert. "It lets people see a little bit of our personalities," Bruskin says. "It makes the concert less formal and more conversational."

In addition to regular concerts in Canandaigua's air-conditioned Zion Fellowship Hall, the festival seeks out ways to attract families, especially the Classical Blue Jeans evening at Bristol Harbor Resort on Wednesday, August 26. It starts with a barbecue dinner for families and musicians together, and ends with country fiddler Mark O'Connor. The festival takes its music seriously, but there is no musical snobbery. In between the food and the fiddling, the classical musicians let the audience guide their playing - try playing it faster or slower, louder or softer. Barston says, "The intimacy comes from having people sit in the middle of a performance. When families come, we have to make things accessible for the kids. Same with the grown-ups; for a lot of them, it's been a long time between visits."

The LakeMusic Festival also offers an opportunity for audience members to attend the Borromeo Quartet's master class for young musicians from Hochstein at Canandaigua on Friday morning, August 21. "We want to offer something for everyone," Klorman says. "We take the music seriously, but we also want to break down the barriers between musicians and audiences so people can have fun."

Both Klorman and Barston express pleasure at the way the festival has grown in only five years. Starting with an idea about performing intimate music in a small town in the summertime, they drew 15 people to the Canandaigua Wegmans' Market Café for their first concert in 2005. Last year, they had 250 subscribers and drew 450 to the most popular concert, but they have never lost what Barston calls "a family feeling."

An old friend of both Barston and Klorman's, Bruskin makes the best case for another summer music festival, "Every musician dreams of starting one in a beautiful location and inviting good musicians who are their friends to play. When you have both, you've got it made."

Canandaigua LakeMusic Festival

Friday, August 21-Sunday, August 30

Zion Fellowship, 5188 Bristol Rd, Canandaigua (and other venues)

690-1220, lakemusicfestival.org