Classical and electronic go together like green eggs and ham. Hall and Oates. Bananas and pajamas. Don’t believe me? Where were you when we reported that the Brooklyn Philharmonic was looking for DJs and sound artists to remix the final movement of Beethoven’s Eroica, a piece performed at the Brooklyn Phil’s debut concert back in 1857? Maybe you were living under a rock or in a bucket or in the woods of New Hampshire.
Well listen up, J.D. Salinger, because the Brooklyn Philharmonic has just announced the five finalists for its Beethoven Remix Project: composer and multi-instrumentalist Dan Friel, electronic musician and cultural activist Boima Tucker, composer Andrew “Komplexx” McLean, DJ and producer DJ Eddie Marz, and a collaboration of six high school students from Brooklyn Community Arts & Media High School called Swaggbrarians. Later this month, they’ll announce the winner, who will have their remix arranged by acclaimed composer Andrew Norman and performed by the Brooklyn Phil at the Bed-Stuy Orchestra Concert on June 9, which will feature Yasiin Bey (a.k.a. Mos Def), singer Leslie Uggams, as well as string players from the Noel Pointer Foundation Youth String Orchestra. Plus, they’ll be burning up to 2000 mix CDs with all the finalists’ remixes, which they’ll hand out for free (dropping them from the ceiling like confetti or balloons, I assume).
The Remix Project is part of a yearlong celebration of the Brooklyn Phil’s history — they’ve spent their season gadding about the borough and performing portions of Eroica in contexts that reflect the respective cultures of different neighborhoods. For the Brighton Beach Orchestra Concert, they paired the opening movement with a Russian film by Akop Kirakosyan, and for the Brooklyn Village concerts at Roulette (part of the Downtown Brooklyn Series), they’ll perform the scherzo in a 19th century reimagining.
Check out the remixes here and consider crawling out from inside your bucket for some classical beats once June 9 rolls around.
• Brooklyn Philharmonic: http://www.bphil.org
