Igudesman & Joo | |
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 Performing together in 2012, Carnegie Hall | |
| Background information | |
| Genres | Classical |
| Members | |
| Website | igudesmanandjoo |
Igudesman & Joo is a duo comprising classical musicians Aleksey Igudesman and Hyung-ki Joo, whose shows combine comedy with classical music and popular culture.
Aleksey Igudesman and Hyung-ki Joo met at the age of twelve, at the Yehudi Menuhin School, in England, and since then, have remained friends and writing partners. Igudesman (born 22 February 1973) is a Russian violinist, composer, conductor and actor. Joo is a British-Korean pianist and composer. In 2004, inspired by Victor Borge and Dudley Moore, they created their show, "A Little Nightmare Music", a play on the Mozart string quartet Eine kleine Nachtmusik (English: A Little Night Music). Since then, they have performed with symphony orchestras and played at large festivals worldwide. [1]
Well known classical performers such as Emanuel Ax, Janine Jansen, Gidon Kremer, Mischa Maisky, Viktoria Mullova, and Julian Rachlin, have joined them in their musical sketches. [2] Classical conductor Bernard Haitink commented "Igudesman and Joo played at my 80th birthday celebrations. I nearly died laughing. I'd like to invite them back for my 85th, but that might be considered reckless...Great musicians, great fun." [3]
Their performances reach outside of the classical field. In 2008 they toured Europe with Robin Gibb (Bee Gees), Midge Ure (Ultravox), co-creator of Live Aid and Band Aid, Tears for Fears, Simple Minds, and Kim Wilde and Joe Kerr. Igudesman and Joo have also collaborated with the actor Roger Moore for UNICEF.
Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, was an American-born British violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in Britain. He is widely considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century. He played the Soil Stradivarius, considered one of the finest violins made by Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari.
Gidon Kremer is a Latvian classical violinist, artistic director, and founder of Kremerata Baltica.
The Yehudi Menuhin School is a specialist music school in Stoke d'Abernon, Surrey, England, founded in 1963 by violinist and conductor Yehudi Menuhin. The current director of music is the British classical pianist Ashley Wass. The school is one of the five established musical schools for school-age children in the United Kingdom, along with Chetham's School of Music, Wells Cathedral School, the Purcell School and St. Mary's Music School, Edinburgh. It is mainly funded by the Department for Education's Music and Dance Scheme, by philanthropic foundations, by donations and bequests from individuals, and by regular support from the Friends of the Yehudi Menuhin School.
Kremerata Baltica is a chamber orchestra consisting of musicians from Baltic countries. It was founded by Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer in 1997. Gidon Kremer is an artistic director of Kremerata Baltica.
The Double Concerto in A minor, Op. 102, by Johannes Brahms is a concerto for violin, cello and orchestra, composed in 1887 as his last work for orchestra.
Yuri Abramovich Bashmet is a Russian conductor, violinist, and violist.
Mischa Maisky is a Soviet-born Israeli cellist.
Arve Tellefsen is a Norwegian violinist who has worked with conductors such as Mariss Jansons, Arvid Jansons, Herbert Blomstedt, Gary Bertini, Evgeny Svetlanov, Bryden Thomson, Neeme Järvi, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Paavo Berglund, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Walter Weller and Zubin Mehta. In the UK, he has appeared with the Royal Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic, The Hallé, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, BBC Welsh Orchestra, the Liverpool Philharmonic and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
Janine Jansen is a Dutch violinist and violist.
The Asian Youth Orchestra (AYO) is a youth orchestra composed of musicians from several Asian countries. It was founded by Yehudi Menuhin and Richard Pontzious in 1987, and its first concert took place in August 1990, conducted by Menuhin. Currently, the orchestra's artistic director is Richard Pontzious, its principal conductor is Joseph Bastian, and its conductor laureate is Sergiu Comissiona.
The Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra in D minor, MWV O 3, was composed by Felix Mendelssohn at the age of thirteen. It has three movements, Allegro–Andante–Allegro, and performance duration is approximately 22 minutes.
The George Enescu Festival, held in honor of the celebrated Romanian composer George Enescu, is the biggest classical music festival and classical international competition held in Romania and one of the biggest in Eastern Europe. The festival proposal was authored by Andrei Tudor in 1955. Enescu's close associate George Georgescu organized the first festival in 1958; highlights included a performance of Bach's Concerto for Two Violins with Yehudi Menuhin and David Oistrakh as soloists and a staging of Enescu's sole opera, Œdipe, with Constantin Silvestri conducting.
Hyung-ki Joo is a Korean-British pianist, composer, comedian and one half of the comedy-musical duo Igudesman & Joo. Billy Joel chose Joo to arrange and record his classical piano pieces for the album Fantasies & Delusions. It was recorded in the Mozart Hall of the Vienna Konzerthaus, and reached the No. 1 spot on the Billboard album chart for 18 weeks.
Belgrade Music Festival (BEMUS) is a Serbian music festival. Founded in 1969, it is the oldest and the most prominent music festival in Serbia and one of the most distinctive classical music festivals in the South-Eastern Europe. Enjoying the position of a cultural event of special importance for the City of Belgrade, BEMUS has been a member of the European Festivals Association (EFA) since 2002.
Aisha Syed Castro is a Dominican Republic violinist and a member of the Yehudi Menuhin School orchestra.
Aleksey Mikhailovich Igudesman is a Russian-German violinist and composer. He performs in the comedy-musical duo Igudesman & Joo.
Friedemann Eichhorn is a German classical violinist.
Boris Kuschnir is a Ukrainian-born Austrian violinist and academic.
Kirill Troussov is a German violinist and violin teacher based in Munich, Germany.
Marie Scheublé is a French classical violinist.
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