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Lukáš Kmit was playing his best at a concert at the Orthodox Jewish synagogue in Presov, Slovakia when someone’s phone went off. I think he handled it in as classy a manner as he could! -via The Daily What
The soundtrack music for the video game Skyrim is quite beautiful already, but when Jason Yang and his violin play the songs they become a thing of ethereal beauty.
We’ve been seeing a lot of this type of video game and orchestral/classical music crossover (Final Fantasy orchestra, Legend of Zelda orchestra, etc.), and I’m sure that game soundtracks will continue to inspire musicians of all kinds to perform their own interpretations of these songs.
–via GeeksAreSexy
It’s about time sci-fi movie scores got their props, right? So thinks the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, which is giving a concert featuring the music of Star Trek, Star Wars, and Close Encounters among others. Here is a clever set of posters for the show by Showpony Advertising.
Link via Super Punch
A video clip with Josh Vietti, a pop violinist based in Orange County, California, performing various famous hip hop songs on violin.
via Pusha
Remember Nyan Cat, the awesomeness we unleashed on all you unsuspecting web users? Well, Neatoramanaut Sarah Hubbard took it to the next level with her violin. Presenting … Nyan Violin! Thanks Sarah!
It’s only a matter of time before Juilliard starts up a Super Mario studies program. In the meantime, this prodigy is getting the ball rolling with his spectacular rendition of the Super Mario Bros. theme in real time – adjusted for speed boosts, trips into the warp zones, coin grabs, and other sound effects.
When I win the lottery and become a zillionaire, I’m going to have a room with just an NES and this guy in it. It’s gonna be awesome.
Violinist Teppei Okada not only plays the Mario theme, he also does all the relevant sound effects of the game -as it is being played! See this neat performance at NeatoGeek. Link
Paul Dateh sings his own harmonies and accompanies himself on the violin. This performance is a medley of recent Top 40 hits from Lady Gaga, Ke$ha, Rhihanna, and Usher. -via I Am Bored
Sandeep Ravindran writes in Popular Science that a Swiss violin maker treated a new violin with a unique fungus. The result was that the new violin beat a Stradivarius in a listening test:
A jury of experts, as well as the conference attendees, judged the tone quality of the violins, and the ultimate winner was “Opus 58″ — one of the fungus-infected violins. 90 of the 180 attendees voted for it, with the Stradivarius coming in second with 39 votes. 113 members guessed that “Opus 58″ was actually the Strad.
The wood in “Opus 58″ was treated with a fungus for the longest time: 9 months. Fungal infections are generally thought to damage wood, but results published by Francis Schwarze last year suggested that some types of soft rot fungi reduced the density of the wood, making it lighter and improving its tonal quality, without impairing its firmness. Fungi may thus help artificially replicate the unusually low density of wood that is thought to have occurred in Stradivarius’ time. The “Little Ice Age” that occurred at this time brought about long winters and cool summers in Central Europe, causing trees to grow slowly and uniformly and creating wood with great tonal qualities.
Image: U.S. Department of the Interior
VideoSift, one of our favorite-est websites on the Net, dug up this gem of a video clip: a young Yehudi Menuhin playing Habanera by Spanish composer Pablo de Sarasate on the violin, with Adolph Baller at the piano.
Link [embedded YouTube clip]
Previously on Neatorama: 10 Operas You Didn’t Know You Already Like (yes, there’s a Habanera there, but it’s an aria by Georges Bizet)
