Raise your batons!

The utterly uproarious virtuosos violinist Aleksey Igudesman and pianist Hyung-Ki Joo are at it again with their delightfully daft orchestral show “UpBeat.” A follow up to their “BIG Nightmare Music,” “UpBeat” takes audiences on a madcap musical ride with stops at every conceivable genre from Ravel to rock, from hip-hop beats to would you believe tee-hee-hees. The show makes its US debut on March 3, 2016, when the Seattle Symphony Orchestra plays straight man to Igudesman & Joo.
 
The words “strike up the band”—or in this case orchestra—never had a more deliciously raucous meaning than when they signal the appearance of the pair, who do double duty as both conductors and soloists throughout “Upbeat.” Of course this being Igudesman & Joo, a baton quickly turns into “a weapon of mass conduction,” and the tug-of-war over who gets to give the initial upbeat has the concert off to a tumultuous start.

The orchestral merry-go-round span “Ring in the Classics,” Igudesman & Joo’s symphonic Nokia ringtone poem commissioned by the New York Philharmonic; “Winter Polka,” an epic exercise in coughing; “Horror Movie,” a brilliant paean to the creaky and crackling, the squeaks and squeals, sounds that frighten the living daylights out of filmgoers; “An Austrian in America” commissioned by the Pittsburg Symphony to honor its conductor Manfred Honeck…or at least they hoped it would; loop-the-loop with “Ride of the Oy Veykyries,” a lively, klezmer-infused version of Wagner’s most famous piece sure to have the grim German spinning in his grave;  “Rush Hour” where a Moscow traffic jam provides fodder; “You Just Have to Laugh,” a kaleidoscope of chuckles, guffaws, and ha-ha-has where the entire philharmonic gets the giggles singing along with the audience; and, as if Greece didn’t have enough woes, Igudesman tries his best to help the beleaguered country out in a schizophrenic finale “Zorba the Geek.” 

Musical education for children of all ages

IGUDESMAN & JOO’s unique edu­ca­tion pro­gram is designed for any musi­cian who wishes to widen their hori­zons and approaches to cre­at­ing, learn­ing, rehears­ing, and, per­form­ing music. “8 To 88″ explores often– ignored and less-practised aspects of music mak­ing and encour­ages musi­cians to be more open to such aspects, which may include impro­vi­sa­tion, chore­og­ra­phy, the­atri­cal­ity, psy­chol­ogy of per­for­mance, stage man­ner and pre­sen­ta­tion, dif­fer­ent styles of music, clas­si­cal and non-classical rhythm, com­po­si­tion, dra­maturgy, and humour.

Musi­cians are invited to bring their own instru­ments, and any other instru­ment they might play, and are encour­aged to bring along any own com­po­si­tions, sketches (musi­cal, or the­atri­cal), and to share any “hid­den talents”.

IGUDESMAN & JOO’s “8 To 88″ is avail­able to all musi­cians, and while it is cer­tainly not exclu­sive to string play­ers or pianists, vio­lin­ists and vio­lists would ben­e­fit from work­ing with Igudesman’s var­i­ous “work­outs” in dif­fer­ent styles, alter­na­tive sound pro­duc­tion, and, non-classical ornamentation.

The con­tent and direc­tion of the pro­gram can vary dra­mat­i­cally depend­ing on the enrolled par­tic­i­pants on any given day, which fol­lows IGUDESMAN & JOO’s organic and reac­tive coach­ing style that addresses each sit­u­a­tion and individual.

Stu­dents come away from “8 To 88″ inspired and invig­o­rated, and many leave some of their fears and inhi­bi­tions behind. The over-arching empha­sis is on being able to have fun with music, and feel­ing inspired and con­fi­dent to be cre­ative and break new grounds for their own musi­cal journeys.

In August 2014, IGUDESMAN & JOO will offer guidance to the participants of “A Feast of Duos”, the first competition for duos of violin and piano at the Sion Festival. Going beyond the usual boundaries of music competitions, IGUDESMAN & JOO will act as both jurors and coaches for the duos. The spirit of “8 To 88” is carried forward to the environment of a first-class music competition.