More than anything, the members of Time for Three want to reach beyond the classical music audience and grab listeners simply interested in hearing great music.

The members of the trio, all of whom graduated from Philadelphia's renowned Curtis Institute of Music, are virtuoso musicians with serious, serious chops.

They are not, however, stuffy. Though they are firmly grounded in the discipline of classical music, the two violinists and double-bassist allow their musical imaginations to roam, ranging across the landscapes of jazz, pop, bluegrass and swing, all of which (and more) are incorporated into their sound.

The trio -- violinists Zach De Pue and Nick Kendall and bassist Ranaan Meyer, will be bending genres when it performs Saturday and Sunday with the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra at the Forum in Harrisburg.

"I think we love playing for the classical audience, but we also want to broaden the type of people who come to hear symphony orchestras," says De Pue. "We want to broaden the age group. We want to open it up. In essence, what we want to be is a bridge to bring people in and experience the orchestra who wouldn't necessarily be there.

"We think they'll discover a whole musical world that is all-around fantastic -- classical music with all the jamming stuff that we do."

De Pue, 30, says Time for Three and the orchestra will perform "American Suite," a four-movement piece that ends with "Orange Blossom Special."

The violinist, an Ohio native, also holds down the job as concertmaster for the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.

In little more than a week, the trio will premiere a piece written for it by Chris Brubeck, the son of jazz legend Dave Brubeck.

The trio also performs all by itself.

It's latest album, the live "3 Fervent Travelers," which was released in January, mostly features original compositions by double-bassist Meyer, whose songs mash up musical styles with abandon.

They also cover a song by British songwriter Imogen Heap and perform a gorgeous rendition of Leonard Cohen's much-covered "Hallelujah."

"We were experimenting with all types of music at that point," De Pue says. "We were trying to make an arrangement of Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody.' We were messing around quite a bit but nothing was really sticking, including 'Hallelujah.' "

He says it took a couple of weeks to realize the value of their arrangement of "Hallelujah."

De Pue comes form a musical family -- his three older brothers all play violin and his father is a retired musical composition teacher.

He says he gravitated toward music at a young age but didn't start taking the violin seriously until he was a teenager.

"There were a lot of kids, like the ones I went to Curtis with, who were on top of their game by age 13," he says. "I mean, they had been working at it, just working at it. I was easy about it and so it wasn't until I was about 15 that I really practiced and put the time in."

As his schedule has gotten more crowded, De Pue says he often has to pause and remember what made him decide to become a musician in the first place.

"My life has gotten really busy with the trio and the concertmaster job, but I have to remind myself what it was when I was a kid that made me fall in love with music. That's what I want to try and re-experience all the time."

Harrisburg Symphony Pops concert

with Time for Three

Sat. 8 p.m.; Sun. 3 p.m.

$10-$55

The Forum, 5th and Walnut sts.

Harrisburg. 545-5527
www.harrisburgsymphony.org