We are Ion, FT, and Jing Xing, three high school students from different parts of the world, who met during summer schools and became connected by our common passion for classical music. Ion had already begun to explore the reasons behind the relative unpopularity of classical music on people of our generation, and based on the results of a market survey, he had developed the 123Classical aiming to portray classical music in a more engaging way to make it more accessible, more appreciated and more frequently listened and build a community of avid classical music listeners. We all had the same passion for classical music and had not met many people of our generation with an appreciation for this music. To the contrary, classical music is often considered by them old fashioned and stuffy, complicated to understand, even socially divisive.
Classical music has been a great positive force in our lives: We have spent many hours learning how to play it and have enormously enjoyed it, we have gone through the stressful but extremely rewarding experience of performing in public, have found strength and relaxation in difficult times by listening to it and have invigorated our imagination by trying to find hidden stories and meanings in it. So we decided to join our forces and further develop this site to broaden its reach and impact. We all believe that classical music should not be only for the older and more educated people. It is for all people with a mind and a heart, whatever age they are and their level of education. And although sometimes it may be a challenge, requiring some more attention than listening to pop music, it is extremely rewarding listening to it after a bit of effort. We therefore decided to change the negative stereotypes around classical music, held especially by people of our age.
We articulated our vision and sourced content from publicly available information and music professionals (teachers and performers) in order to: i) provide vivid and illustrative descriptions of our favorite 123 selected classical pieces, ii) help the listener imagine these pieces, iii) create our own videos of classical music in films, iv) curate interesting video content with classical music, and v) present classical music adaptations to contemporary sounds and music genres.
We delved into the lives of composers, and tried to understand the factors that created their genius but also the difficult conditions under which they lived, which made them suffer but also empowered them. We examined the different musical periods of the past to understand what triggered their musical inspirations. And we created "how to start" playlists, to facilitate one's adventure in the classical music world. The site is still developing as we speak as our aim is to reach the widest possible audience by incorporating material for all tastes and opinions.