We stand for creativity and pushing boundaries and having fun with one's music.
Richard Hyung-ki Joo
I was always in love with music, but my parents never really saw that I had talent, and it was really just by chance that I made it into the Menuhin School, and from then on my life changed. And that was when I realized, OK, this is what I want to do. But, until then, it was really just a passion, a hobby.
Rachmaninov's hands were big. My hands are small. But only hands small.
We want people to know that classical music is for everyone. A parent or kid might be terrified of this music, but after they come to us, they'll never be scared of classical music again.
Aleksey and I have gathered together a bunch of kindred spirits who are also versatile musicians. We have a violinist who eats fire, another who is an acrobat, and a flutist who beats boxes. We hope in years to come to tour the U.S. with our 'League of X-traordinary musicians.'
'A Little Nightmare Music' is the first show we created. It's about all the nightmares that can happen in the span of a concert. When things go wrong - when the lights go out or a cellphone rings - that's when an audience suddenly comes alive, wondering what's going to happen next. Things going wrong often leads to something good.
There's one point where I play the piano upside down. When I first did that, I hit my head and it really hurt. But people were laughing, so we've kept it in ever since. I probably have severe brain damage.
If you look back, Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven were mixing music and humor all the time.
We write for those who get the musical jokes. But for those who don't, there is always something else going on. That's why we have such a widespread audience.
I am the pianist of the duo, although Aleksey does pretty good... you know we've written more and more stuff where he has to play the piano. But you know, to be very honest, I actually went into music because I wanted to be a composer and a conductor. And piano was just one of the ways to get into that.
