Aleksey Igudesman and Hyung-ki Joo are two classical musicians who have taken the musical world by storm with their unique and hilarious theatrical shows, which combine comedy with classical music and popular culture.  

Millions of YouTube viewers can’t be wrong. Well they can, but they aren’t, and they’ve turned the inspired lunacy of musicians Igudesman & Joo into an internet and international sensation.  The duo has picked up the mantle of Victor Borge and P.D.Q Bach and given it a third millennium makeover. Like their predecessors, they are serious musicians who have turned the world’s most esteemed concert halls into standing- room only comedy clubs.

Think Mozart hijacked by Monty Python and you have some idea of the mayhem created at the highest level of musicianship on worldwide stages--and immortalized on videos with more than 28 million viewings--by Aleksey Igudesman and Hyung-ki Joo, classically-trained artists who bring an uproarious, sidesplitting approach to the concert performance.

Comedic as well as musical virtuosi, violinist Igudesman and pianist Joo knock the stuffy out of staid classical performances, mixing genres and styles with hearty doses of humor and theatricality. Yet, while their spin may be irreverent, they always treat the music with the utmost respect.

In “A Little Nightmare Music”--which Python alumni Terry Jones raved, “brings surrealism to the concert hall and takes its trousers down”--a vio­lin­ist can nod off and awake trans­formed into a “River­dancer,” and a pianist may find his keyboard locked and ordering him to insert his credit card for access. The Beatles’ “Ticket to Ride” might get an operetta makeover and Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” barely survives Russianization.  

In part, what makes Igudesman & Joo so unique is that they are enjoyed with equal gusto by audiences ranging from an eight-year old who has never heard of Bach or Brahms to musical connoisseurs. Amazingly, some of their strongest demographics in the U.S. is among 15 to 35-year-olds and their humor can elicit a knowing chuckle for an inside joke about a composer or a loud guffaw for broad slapstick shtick. Their buffoonery is always tempered by incredible musicianship. Audiences crack up when Joo’s right hand seems to be amputated by a piano cover and then are spellbound when he returns to play Scriabin’s Nocturne for Left Hand. Igudesman shows that when his bow isn’t being sucked up by a vacuum cleaner, he can navigate enormously difficult passages with ease. 

Crisscrossing the globe, Igudesman & Joo maintain an increasingly hectic concert schedule. In the U.S., 2011 proved particularly busy… and productive. After concert debuts in several cities, including New York and Los Angeles, the duo made the Los Angeles Times’ prestigious “Best in Classical Music” 2011 list. And, along with such standouts as pop singer Adele, they were among the artists chosen by WNYC-FM’s acclaimed music program “Soundstage” for giving the year’s most memorable live in-studio New York performances.

In October, Igudesman & Joo’s California debut at four major venues received a brilliant review from the Los Angeles Times. Moved by the pair’s rollicking take on a Gloria Gaynor pop classic, reviewer Mark Swed gushed: “Igudesman & Joo personify the idea that with skill and devotion and a good nature and perfect comic timing, we can do more than merely survive, but enjoy ourselves …They must come back, and next time let it be big time. Hello, Hollywood Bowl. We need them maybe more than we know.”

Earlier in the year, Igudesman & Joo performed to sold-out audiences at the 92^nd Street Y in New York and the Berklee Performing Arts Center in Boston as well as the Newport Music Festival. In July, the duo presented “BIG Nightmare Music,” which amps up the madness to symphonic scale, at the Crested Butte Music Festival in Col­orado. They played with the Fes­ti­val Orches­tra, comprising musi­cians from prestigious orches­tras around the U.S, and conductor Jens Georg Bachmann, who applauded “their high class musicianship, their sense of humor and their acting capabilities.” He went on to say:  “They’re actually phenomenal arrangers and composers. Everything they offer is on such a high level that it’s just irresistible.”

At the Konzerthaus in Vienna in November, the partners will expose more of music’s zanier side in a new program they’re presenting featuring pianist Emanual Ax, entitled “Manny Spring Sonatas.” They’ll also ring in the New Year at the venue with special guests, including Sir Roger Moore, Julian Rachlin, Thomas Gansch, Georg Breinschmid, and Nadja Maleh.

With the goal of setting a record for “Most Dancing Violinists,”  Igudesman & Joo have also reached out to their fans to invite 100 violinists to perform their arrangement of the Morris Jig on stage with them on New Year’s Eve at the Konzerthaus.

In May 2012, Igudesman and Joo will again take the stage with Ax and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and will make their London debut in March at Cadogan Hall.

The musical establishment whose legs they metaphorically pull may be the pair’s most enthusiastic supporters. “All of the collaborations have come about because these artists have come to us and said ‘how can we be involved,’” Igudesman & Joo say. “A lot of ‘serious’ musicians dream about being onstage and letting loose.” Adds Ax: “I had the time of my life when I first saw them live in action, and felt hon­ored to put in a cameo in some of their nutty skits!” The YouTube performance with the acclaimed pianist is at once brilliant and insanely funny.

The partners in comic crime have developed a huge fan base among other entertainers as well. Catch their hilarious musical skits with John Malkovich on YouTube or clips with Yo-Yo Ma, a self-declared Igudesman & Joo fan, who couldn’t resist joining the duo backstage for some illuminating banter.

Aleksey Igudesman, born in what was then Leningrad, and Hyung-ki Joo, a British-Korean, met as pre-teens when they studied at England’s Yehudi Menuhin School. Overcoming hate at first sight, the pair has forged an enduring musical and comedic marriage. They share more than the same funny bone; each cites Menuhin as an inspiration as well as mentor. “He was one of the most open-minded musicians and he enjoyed pushing boundaries so he played with people like sitar-great Ravi Shankar and jazz legend Stephane Grappelli,” the duo says.

They bring the same passion to their outside projects. Despite all the fun, they are serious, highly respected musicians. Aleksey Igudesman has worked frequently with Academy Award winner Hans Zimmer, and composed and arranged music for “Sherlock Holmes” as well as being a featured soloist on the film’s Oscar-nominated score. In fact, they recently won Best Sound Track at the Newport Film Festival.  He is collaborating with Zimmer on a second Holmes movie and together they have scored “Jealous of the Birds,” a Holocaust documentary. Alexsky also wrote and arranged the score for the Johnny Depp animated film “Rango,” which was released in theatres spring of 2011.

A prolific composer and poet, Igudesman has written a series of violin duets and more than 300 compositions, performed by internationally renowned soloists, ensembles and orchestras. As solo violinist and conductor, he has worked with Kremerata Baltica, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Belgrade Symphony Orchestra, Virtuosi Italiani, among other orchestras.

Hyung-ki Joo was cho­sen by Billy Joel to arrange and record the pop star’s CD of clas­si­cal compo­si­tions.  As a soloist, he has performed with the London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Kremerata Baltica, Copenhagen Philharmonic and Warsaw Sinfonia.  Joo also has developed innovative workshops for young musicians designed to help them to think outside the practice room, deal with their ambitions and fears and gain new perspectives on their careers.

When asked how the dynamic duo sees their future, they simply reply: “At night we are writing our ground breaking TV series, which will change the color of chocolate and the world as we know it. Once we get it produced, we will buy Madison Square Garden and turn it into an intimate Chamber Music Hall!”

A few of their immensely popular YouTube videos include:

Mozart Bond -- 3,218682 viewers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvlCu1_noTc

I Will Survive -- 5,000,409 viewers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xui7x_KF7bY

Rachmaninov Had Big Hands -- 3,872992 viewers  http://bit.ly/qMiXt

Montage of YouTube Clips – 1,251,967 viewers http://bit.ly/eJJwdv

I & J’s website: http://www.igudesmanandjoo.com

Press Contact: Diane Blackman

BR Public Relations / 212.249.5125

dblackman@brpublicrelations.com

Now Booking:

Specific Time periods in Summer 2012 through Spring 2013 -