BY ELEANOR WOOD
Eddy Chen and Brett Yang are worldwide internet sensations. But don’t be fooled – they’re in it for the long game. Together, the two Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University graduates form TwoSet Violin: a violin parody duo that spoofs conservatorium culture and traditionally ‘hardcore’ classical musos.
The videos go beyond comic relief; they shed light on the fears, doubts and idiosyncrasies of what it’s like to be a classical music student and, ultimately, they’re pretty inspiring. There’s no question that people want to learn from TwoSet’s creations – the co-founders have close to 200,000 social media followers and they have reached more than 50 million views through their videos.
Brett made a fairly recent debut performing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Queensland Conservatorium Symphony in 2012, and has since worked with leading Australian orchestras and performed in front of world leaders at the G20 Summit in 2014. Equally impressive, Eddy was the Queensland finalist of the National Young Virtuoso Award in 2014 – the same year he completed his music degree. Having received various scholarships and prizes, he’s also performed with the Queensland and Melbourne symphony orchestras.
We catch up with Brett, one half of TwoSet, about practise, persistence and the power of YouTube. Best part? You’ll get to see them live this December 22 bringing us a ‘fire’ concerto rap battle (read on) among it all.
Subscribe to CutCommon by December 5, and you’ll go straight into the draw to win a double pass to see TwoSet Violin live at the Sydney Opera House.
You guys are on the brink of a debut at the Sydney Opera House and a world tour in 2017. Did you ever expect that making hilarious internet videos would land you onstage at the opera house?
We never expected that making videos would get us a chance to perform at the Sydney Opera House but we did have a belief that one day we could figure it out and do something epic with our online presence. So then came the show!
Your videos are notorious for making fun of classical music and conservatorium culture. How did TwoSet come about?
Long story short, we saw violinists on YouTube who have racked up millions of views playing covers. As classically trained, hardcore violinists, we were not convinced by some of their playing and so we thought that we could do it as well. After a few covers, we quickly realised that we were missing a lot of other skills required to execute a cover on YouTube and it wasn’t really our thing.
Eddy and I had quite daring characters, and we saw violinist Ray Chen made a few funny videos on Facebook. These videos inspired us to create our own videos as there was so much we felt we could say. The more we made these videos, the more we loved it and to this day we are still thrilled by the excitement of creating videos telling the life of conservatorium culture and classical musicians.
What do you think is the biggest challenge facing young and emerging musicians today?
The biggest challenge for young musicians today is to commit to their art and focus on their life long career if they choose to be a professional musician. As the level of playing increases, it becomes exceedingly difficult to stay motivated and compete with a lot of ‘talent’ out there. Although, it is also the easiest time to have your music heard through the power of the internet. This revolution gave everyone the access to better information and therefore we have an abundance of information, so the challenge is to play the long game and keep practising!
You guys have exploited the use of social media and YouTube effectively – was this always part of your strategy?
We have always had a keen eye on new things, and the evolution of the internet culture is one of them. It wasn’t much of a strategy until we discovered how social media works and began experimenting with it. We recognised the industry is changing and the movement of our generation is rapidly growing so we decided to dive into expanding our presence on social media.
You have performed with some seriously well-known musicians, including the likes of Lang Lang and Ray Chen. Who else would you love to collaborate with?
Honestly, I felt that we have collaborated with most of the artists we have wanted to work with, including Janine Jansen and James Ehnes. It has been such an honour to have the opportunity to meet these great artists. There are so many other great artists out there we wold still love to collaborate with them so if we had to name a few they would be 2Cellos, Itzak Perlman, & Martha Argerich.
I’m intrigued by the sound of a ‘fire’ concerto rap battle – can you talk me through what this involves?
The concerto rap battle was inspired by a ‘concerto rap battle’ video we made early last year. Similar to the ‘rap’ battles we hear in the other music genre, we arranged a score with most of the popular violin concertos by intertwining the concertos on top of each other which represents the ‘battle’ Eddy and I are playing.
What else can audiences expect from TwoSet Violin live at the Sydney Opera House?
Be ready to experience classical music in a new comedic and educational form! We combine humour and classical music by telling the story of our lives as musicians and nature of our music.
TwoSet will play at the Utzon Room at Sydney Opera House on 22 December, details online. Learn more about TwoSet Violin on the duo’s website, or follow them on Facebook. Subscribe to CutCommon by December 5, and you’ll go straight into the draw to win a double pass to see TwoSet Violin live at the Sydney Opera House.
