TwoSet Violin (Brett Yang playing the violin while hula hooping, accompanied by Eddy Chen on the piano), Merkin Concert Hall, New York City on 31 October 2018.
TwoSet Violin (
traditional Chinese: 雙琴俠;
simplified Chinese: 双琴侠) is a musical comedy duo consisting of Australian violinists and YouTubers Brett Yang and Eddy Chen. Yang and Chen started out posting
classical covers of pop music on their
YouTube channel, but eventually switched focus to
musical comedy videos, which gained them more viewership. Yang and Chen eventually also performed in live concerts and tours.
In 2013, the duo started posting covers of pop music played on the violin on a YouTube channel.[7] Yang said that they had viewed violin virtuosos playing covers that had garnered millions of views on YouTube, and attempted to do the same to minimal reaction.[8] Discovering that Taiwanese-Australian violinist
Ray Chen made comedic videos, they shifted their content production in a similar direction, focusing their videos on their lives at
conservatory, as
classical musicians and as students, which led to a dramatic increase in viewership.[7][8][9] At the end of 2016, Yang and Chen resigned their places in the
Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the
Queensland Symphony Orchestra respectively to begin performing live concerts of their own.[10]
The TwoSet Violin YouTube channel received a
Silver Play Button in 2018 for surpassing 100 thousand subscribers, and a
Gold Play Button in 2019 for surpassing 1 million subscribers.[11]Classic FM's Kyle Macdonald listed TwoSet Violin as one of the "10 ways the 2010s changed classical music forever".[12] In January 2020, it was announced that the duo would be attending that year's
Menuhin Competition, held at
Richmond, Virginia, as roving reporters;[13][14] the competition was postponed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.[15] On 8 February 2020, TwoSet Violin
live-streamed a performance of
Tchaikovsky's
Violin Concerto to celebrate their achievement of two million subscribers. Yang played the solo part while Chen performed an original arrangement of the orchestral component for solo violin.[16]
In December 2020, the duo announced a temporary hiatus from YouTube while Yang addressed some health issues,[17][18] and announced a slow return to making videos in January 2021.[19]
On 30 January 2021, to celebrate their achievement of 3 million YouTube subscribers, TwoSet Violin live-streamed another performance, of
Sibelius's
Violin Concerto, with Chen playing the solo while Yang performed an arrangement of the orchestral component for solo violin.[20] In May 2021, they posted videos to support the Menuhin Competition.[21][22][23]
In October 2019, TwoSet announced another world tour where they planned to visit multiple locations in
Oceania,
Europe, Asia and
North America.[38] However, the tour was postponed as a result of the
COVID-19 pandemic, and a virtual world tour event was held instead on 28 December 2021.[39][40][41] On 16 November 2022, they announced an upcoming world tour for 2023–24.[26] On 1 April 2023, they released their official world tour announcement on their YouTube channel, including a list of 29 cities that they will be touring, and dates to be announced subsequently.[42][43][44]
Videos and themes
In 2017, TwoSet Violin made a comedic reference to Ling Ling, a fictional violinist who "practices 40 hours a day". In an interview with
Yle Uutiset, they described Ling Ling as the
final boss of a video game: the
Chuck Norris of violinists. Chen said they improvised the character from their comedy sketch video concerning a teenage violin student's
tiger mom comparing the student to her friend's child.[45][46] In 2018, they released a series of videos called the Ling Ling Workout. In these challenges, the duo play classical pieces (or
contemporary music) with handicaps such as playing at double speed, with
scordatura, while dancing or
hula hooping, with hand positions reversed, or while upside down. Prominent violinists such as
Ray Chen,
Ziyu He, and
Hilary Hahn have also attempted the challenge on their channel.[46][47][48][49]
In July 2018, they released a series of videos in which they performed classical music using
rubber chickens.[50][51] Recurring themes include violin
charades,[48] trying out various instruments, and
viola jokes.[52]
Another popular video series consists of reviews of film and TV show scenes that feature violin playing, in which Yang and Chen critique egregiously fake performances.[53][54] On
April Fools' Day 2019, they claimed they discovered a new Double Violin Concerto by
J.S. Bach.[55]
In September 2018, TwoSet Violin uploaded a
reaction video to a
BBC News story titled "Fastest Violinist in the World", in which they challenged violinist
Ben Lee's
Guinness World Record claim of playing "
Flight of the Bumblebee" for what they perceived to be significant inaccuracy. They satirically timed themselves purposefully playing random fast notes before declaring they had broken the world record.[2]
Twoset Violin, in addition with their usual content, has also posted music and films mainly composed by themselves and Jordon He. In October of 2020, they released a video titled "Prelude", a short piece composed and played by TwoSet Violin and He. In June 2022, they posted "FANTASIA", a short film written by the duo, that contained several pieces composed by themselves and He, consisting of the previously mentioned 'Prelude', 'Scherzo', 'Adagio', and 'Rhapsody'. The film also includes a guest appearance of
Chloe Chua.[56][importance?][better source needed]
Other ventures
TwoSet has a clothing line called TwoSet Apparel.[57][58]
^TwoSet Violin (2 April 2021).
Geoguessr: Classical Music Edition. Event occurs at 6m27s – via YouTube. Eddy: Born in Taiwan! I was born in Kaohsiung though
^TwoSet Violin (23 September 2018).
"Australisches Duo TwoSet Violin im Interview". Concerti.de (Interview) (in German). Interviewed by Elisa Reznicek.
Archived from the original on 24 October 2019. Retrieved 24 October 2019.