Julia Wesely
The duo makes classical music accessible.
Igudesman & Joo are names you might expect to see on the door of a law firm. But defying expectations is the name of the game for this classical music comedy duo. Violinist Aleksey Igudesman and pianist Hyung-ki Joo will appear at the Capitol Theater on Friday, Oct. 23, with their hysterical mash-up, “And Now Mozart”— which may or may not include any Mozart.
They’re a worldwide sensation, partly because each show is tailor-made. In a phone interview while on tour in Norway, Joo told Isthmus that he and Igudesman carefully plan their skits while still allowing for flexibility and improvisation. “We feel the temperature of the audience, and we might change things a bit according to that, but we basically stick to the plan,” he says.
But two things are certain: These guys are hilarious, and they’re superb musicians.
“And Now Mozart” includes comedy sketches that pair classical music with pop, rock and other genres. The skits include a fitness workout, a GPS guide through a musical performance and the random thoughts that a concert pianist might have while playing Schubert, like “Did I leave the iron on?” Joo says the show is for everyone from age 8 to 88.
The two met in the mid-’80s at the Yehudi Menuhin School in England when they were both 12. Joo continued his music studies at the Manhattan School of Music, while Igudesman went to the Vienna Conservatory. “Mentally we’re still 12,” says Joo. “As teenagers, we prepared sketches for Christmas parties, but when we sat down and decided to be a duo, that was 11 years ago.”
Since then, their videos have garnered more than 40 million hits on You Tube, and superstars Billy Joel, Joshua Bell, Roger Moore (James Bond) and pianist Emanuel Ax have performed with them.
Their ultimate goal in all this is to make classical music accessible to wider audiences, and they’ll do the near impossible to achieve it. At the end of “And Now Mozart,” Gloria Gaynor’s disco hit “I Will Survive” is played as a classical violin solo that morphs into an operatic recitative that morphs into “Dido’s Lament” by Purcell, then into Pachelbel’s Canon in D, then into rap, reggae, the Beatles. . .and a little Mozart — maybe.
