PERFORMING classical music at a dive bar that serves beer and hot dogs is an unusual concept. But Ensemble HD, a group of musicians from the Cleveland Orchestra, is packing out the city’s Happy Dog bar at their monthly live shows. The idea for the sextet—piano, flute, oboe, violin, viola and cello—to perform at the bar came from a meeting of minds. Joshua Smith, principal flautist at the orchestra and lead member of Ensemble HD, had long been interested in reaching out to people who don't go to classical-music concerts; and Sean Watterson, owner of Happy Dog, is similarly interested in mixing high- and low-brow culture. After leaving his finance job in New York following the financial meltdown in 2008, Mr Watterson moved back to Cleveland and transformed this rust-belt bar into a hub of cultural programming. In addition to Ensemble HD, the Happy Dog hosts monthly science lectures, regular talks from curators at the Cleveland Museum of Art and polka bands during happy hour. The venue attracts a diverse crowd: "It's great to look over at the bar and see people in mink coats next to twentysomethings covered in tattoos and piercings," Mr Watterson says.

For the first Ensemble HD performance in June 2011, the pair had low expectations. Would anyone come to this neighbourhood bar to hear classical music? Yes, it turns out. An hour before it began, people were lined up around the block. They stayed for the entire three-hour performance; a hush falling over the usually noisy space. Then at one point a group of bearded hipsters wearing flannel shirts raised their lighters and chanted "Beethoven! Beethoven!" in appreciation. The normally penguin-suited musicians perform in casual clothes and bounce along to the music—the violinist sidles up to the oboist like a bass player to the lead guitarist in a rock band. When he isn't playing, Mr Smith turns the pages for the pianist, who sits at a new Steinway donated by a local business.

Mr Smith says they have learned from the crowd not to dumb down their fare, or churn out popular tunes. "Mozart and Schubert did not work well in that setting," he says of his programme for their first performance. "Those pieces sounded like elevator music." So he started programming more challenging, ambitious pieces by 20th-century composers such as Dmitri Shostakovich, Anton Webern and Arvo Part. These divert the crowd from their beers and the awed silence after a piece, before the applause, can be as beautiful as the music itself.

Last autumn Mr Smith and Mr Watterson successfully raised $15,000 on Kickstarter, a crowdfunding site, for a project to record Ensemble HD playing two live shows. The album contains unusual sounds for classical-music listeners: an ambulance driving by, a baby crying. This was intentional. "Don't be too silent," Mr Watterson told the crowd, "We want the record to sound like it's happening in a bar." Cleveland Orchestra is not affiliated with Ensemble HD, but, to coincide with the group’s album release, the orchestra is holding a residency from May 13th to 19th in the up-and-coming Gordon Square neighbourhood, home to the Happy Dog bar. "Cleveland is one of the places where innovation in the arts is happening," Mr Watterson says. It is certainly the place to go to enjoy chamber music while chinking glasses.