OUTSIDE THE
(BEAT)BOX

Format: Solo + Guests

Soloist: Aleksey Igudesman

Guests: Guest string player, guest beatboxer and optional dancer

DESCRIPTION

Outside the (Beat)Box is a distinctive chamber-music programme that expands the expressive and physical possibilities of the violin while remaining firmly rooted in classical virtuosity.

At its centre is Aleksey Igudesman’s solo violin book Outside the Box published on Universal Edition. Pieces such as Eine kleine RAPmusik and Bach Double for Single approach familiar musical traditions from unexpected perspectives, exploring the violin as a melodic, polyphonic, rhythmic and percussive instrument.

The solo repertoire develops into an encounter with a guest violinist, viola player or cellist. A selection of works from the duet books Latin & More, Africa & More, Asia & More, Mozart & More and Celtic & More, Violin & Viola & More or Violin & Cello & More create a musical journey across cultures and traditions. The two instruments alternate between dialogue, counterpoint, rhythmic exchange and lyrical intimacy.

A beatboxer becomes the third instrumental voice, adding pulse, breath and vocal percussion to the sound of the string instruments. Rather than functioning as accompaniment, beatbox is integrated into the chamber-music texture as an equal musical partner.

Dance adds a further dimension. Igudesman has long been fascinated by how far one can combine movement with playing the violin without compromising precision, sound or expression. Together with an optional guest dancer, he explores the point at which musical gesture becomes choreography.

The programme combines original compositions, reinventions of music by Mozart, Bach, Beethoven and Johann Strauss, and works inspired by traditions ranging from Irish music to Klezmer, Latin American, Asian and African influences.

Beginning with a single violin, Outside the (Beat)Box gradually opens into a vivid dialogue between strings, beatbox and movement. It offers audiences a chamber-music experience that is virtuosic, visually compelling and connected to a much wider world of sound.

A Personal Perspective: 

“I always knew that I wanted to be outside the box. While others were at home practising their scales, I was in record shops searching for recordings of Irish tin-whistle ensembles, Mongolian throat singers, Finnish tango, Hardanger fiddles, West African kora, Latin rhythms from Cuba, bluegrass from Nashville: anything I hadn't yet heard. The more unfamiliar the sound, the more deeply I wanted to understand it.

I have also always been fascinated by dance and by the physical nature of playing the violin. How far can one move while playing without compromising the music? At what point do playing and dancing cease to be separate activities and become one form of expression?
That curiosity has shaped everything I do as a composer and violinist. I don’t experience musical traditions or artistic disciplines as separate boxes. I hear and see the connections between them in rhythm, gesture, colour, movement and emotions.”

Aleksey Igudesman