YouTube sensation TwoSet Violin on making classical music fun and returning to Hong Kong this month

“It’s just pleasant to be able to shape this beautiful sound right under your chin,” says Chen of playing the violin. “Then the other thing that motivated me—and I think a lot of people share this—was when you first go to a music group or camp, where you’re surrounded by people who are equally passionate about things like the pulling of the downbow; it gives you permission to explore when people didn’t understand you in high school.” His love of the instrument ultimately encouraged him to pick music over medicine at university.

For Yang, music was “a place where I could see progress. The beauty is going through the whole motion as mortal human beings. It doesn’t matter where you [start], where you stop; if you practise, it’s inevitable that you’re going to improve. It’s cool to have that kind of value of hard work.”

Both men became professional classical musicians after graduating from Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University in Brisbane; Yang in 2013 and Chen in 2014. Chen started with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in 2011 and moved to the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 2014. In 2013, Yang got a job as a violinist in the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, before moving to the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 2015.

On the side, the pair started posting videos of classical covers of pop music on YouTube in 2014 upon seeing how other violin virtuosos did the same thing and gained millions of viewers. When they came across Ray Chen’s comedy videos, they were inspired to create their own content that showed a less serious side of a professional musician’s life.

“Most classical [orchestras] were scared to break that image. One of my teachers said to me that there was this great classical singer who made some mistakes in a performance and he was never invited back to perform in that city for 30 years. This idea of recording yourself playing imperfectly [and posting it] online is, even today, [frowned upon],” Yang says. “Eddy and I were the only ones to just go, ‘Hey, this is what it’s like to be in a practice,’ or ‘We don’t always sound perfect in our practices.’”

To their surprise, their videos went viral. “Millions of viewers came together [and said] ‘I can relate to that.’” Some viewers credited the pair with reigniting a long-lost passion for music.

Read more: Lang Lang on Hong Kong’s music potential globally, and when learning music becomes a ‘waste of time’

In 2016, the two decided to put their coveted jobs on the line and devote their time to setting up TwoSet Violin. “We were young. We had nothing to lose, so we just gave it a shot,” Yang says. “Also, we came from a world of classical music where it’s quite rigid.” Being able to choose what they played and when, and not be restrained by an orchestra concert’s long lead time, gave them a new sense of freedom. As well as online content, they started busking and crowdfunding to raise money to stage live shows both in Australia and abroad. They also experimented with publishing content in ways that were forward-thinking at the time. “Social media wasn’t really a thing back [then]. We livestreamed everything when livestreaming wasn’t really a thing,” Chen recalls.

Then in 2020, the pandemic hit. “It was a shocker,” Yang says. “Everything stopped. People started panicking because [public] donations slowed down, government funding stopped, some musicians lost their jobs.” The videos became a way for people to have a laugh and connect in a time of isolation. Chen adds, “You would think initially that classical music doesn’t fit the social media world where people do the Renegade dance [trending TikTok dance from early 2020]. Ironically, because of that, it became easier for us because no one else was doing it.”

As well as performing—and both in their videos and concerts, they play everything from Tchaikovsky to Hans Zimmer and Queen—the two are also responsible for ticketing, venue bookings, tour planning, shooting videos and managing their social media. Looking back at how far they’ve come from their orchestral career, Chen says, “We’ve grown up a lot [from] almost a condensed package of getting a range of experiences at all possible angles.”

Despite their success, however, the TwoSet guys don’t think their kind of act will or should replace traditional orchestral performances. They believe it is important that innovation coexists with tradition. They state, for example, that the Berlin Philharmonic has been paramount in protecting the tradition and standards of the classical music world, and is a beacon for aspiring professional musicians. “If I was a violinist who plays at the highest level, that’s where I’d want to be,” Chen says. “And then you have Sydney Symphony Orchestra, which marries [tradition and innovation]. It doesn’t play hardcore rock music but what’s within its brand and makes sense. I feel innovation and progress in the future have to be measured by how useful they are.”

Ten years into being TwoSet Violin, the two realise that while their professional skills are important, it is their authenticity that ultimately makes them fan favourites. “Our jokes work best when we let the script be motivated by things that we feel either a genuine emotional connection to or something that our fans know we’ve been going through,” Yang says. “By being authentic, you represent something that people can choose to relate to. People are inherently human and we all crave connection.”

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