Concerto for Beatboxer and Orchestra

This Friday sees the world premier of a new classical composition by popular modern composer Anna Meredith. However this is a score with a difference as Anna, in collaboration with top British beatboxer Schlomo (it's his real name), has incorporated 5 of the performance artists into her latest piece, Concerto for Beatboxer and Orchestra, playing at London Southbank Centre. The first problem facing the odd-couple duo was how exactly to score a beatbox performance as the vocal styling had grown from its hip-hop roots entirely by 'word of mouth' and has no formal notation. Undeterred Meredith and Schlomo have spent a year constructing their own, which they hope will gain wider adoption when the entire score of the new work is made available online for free following the first performance (FT).

The Southbank Centre has put up a 'teaser trailer' for the new work

And Schlomo's beatbox talents can be checked out courtesy of the BBC's Jules Holland Show.

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Posted By: Dumbfounded - Thu Feb 18, 2010
Category: Art | Performance Art | Entertainment | Music | Screams, Grunts and Other Exclamations

Comments

see what happens when a kid wants to be in band and mom and dad are too cheap to get him an instument!

Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 02/18/10 at 06:58 PM

What, he ends performing with an orchestra at the Southbank Centre?

Mind you, apparently Schlomo's Jewish, so I imagine his mom's still not got over her disappointment ("So Carnegie Hall was busy that night?").

Posted by Dumbfounded on 02/18/10 at 07:05 PM

now that guy is really good at the sound effects thing!

Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 02/18/10 at 11:35 PM

"Mouth Music" has been around for a very, very long time and is found in many cultures but this isn't "music" it's sound effects! You know, like that dude in the Police Academy movies.

Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 02/19/10 at 01:13 AM

It's "mouth percussion", he's the next Evelyn Glennie. :lol:

Posted by Dumbfounded on 02/19/10 at 07:07 AM

I was thinking Police Academy too! That was Michael Winslow, and he was fantastic. Maybe Schlomo has a future in the movies as well.

Posted by Nethie on 02/19/10 at 11:16 PM

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