Klara launches clever app to introduce classical to the masses

Do you like Lana Del Rey? Then you should check out the work of 20th-century Italian composer Nino Rota. Maybe indie band Bright Eyes is more your thing? Then be sure to listen to Beethoven’s Symphony No 9, otherwise known as Ode to Joy.

These are just two of the hundreds of revelations awaiting you on Klarafy, a clever new app released by Flemish classical music radio station Klara. The station has been instrumental in introducing classical and new music to the masses at its annual festival, and the app is another tool to help convince the non-initiated to give the genre a go.

“Classical music is made up of 10 centuries of music,” said Klara in a statement. “For many people, that’s just a confusing mess; they have no idea where to start. This web tool makes discovering classical music easy, using their own taste as a compass.”

The app asks you to create a playlist on Spotify (which is free), if you don’t already have one. Then it analyses your playlist and makes suggestions based on what it hears, whether that’s rock, rap or schlager.

Sometimes the app mentions an artist in general but sometimes it picks up on individual songs. The combination of “Skinny Love” by American folk band Bon Iver and “Wasting My Young Years” by English trip-hop trio London Grammar, for instance, inspired Klarafy to suggest JS Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, while the combination of Lou Reed, Bon Iver and Tom Odell (“tragic texts and a sober atmosphere”) was good for either Schubert’s Winter Journey or John Dowland’s “In Darkness Let Me Dwell”.