Alek­sey Igudes­man and Hyung-ki Joo are two clas­si­cal musi­cians who have taken the world by storm with their unique and hilar­i­ous the­atri­cal shows, which com­bine com­edy with clas­si­cal music and pop­u­lar cul­ture. Their clips on YouTube, to date, have gath­ered over 40 mil­lion hits, and the duo has appeared on tele­vi­sion in numer­ous coun­tries. Equally com­fort­able per­form­ing in clas­si­cal con­cert halls, as well as in sta­di­ums in front of crowds of 18,000, their col­lec­tive dream is to make clas­si­cal music acces­si­ble to a wider and younger audience.

Alek­sey and Hyung-ki met at the age of twelve, at the Yehudi Menuhin School, in Eng­land, and since then, have remained strong friends and writ­ing part­ners. In 2004, fol­low­ing in the foot­steps of lumi­nar­ies such as Vic­tor Borge and Dud­ley Moore, they cre­ated their first ground­break­ing show, “A Lit­tle Night­mare Music”. Since then, they have per­formed as a duo, and as soloists, with cham­ber and sym­phony orches­tras at many of the world’s biggest stages and fes­ti­vals.

Many of clas­si­cal music’s biggest names, such as Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Janine Jansen, Gidon Kre­mer, Mis­cha Maisky, Vik­to­ria Mullova, and Julian Rach­lin, have joined them in their musi­cal sketches. Some of the world’s leading orchestras, such as the New York Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, have shared the stage with IGUDESMAN & JOO for their show “BIG Nightmare Music”. Alek­sey and Hyung-ki have also teamed up with actors, such as John Malkovich, and for­mer James Bond, Sir Roger Moore, on sev­eral occa­sions in aid of UNICEF.

Indi­vid­u­ally, Alek­sey Igudes­man has worked with musi­cians rang­ing from Acad­emy® Award-winning Hol­ly­wood com­poser, Hans Zim­mer, to multi Grammy® Award-winning vocal­ist, Bobby McFer­rin. Hyung-ki Joo, has worked with Acad­emy® Award-winning com­poser, Van­ge­lis, and was cho­sen by Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Billy Joel, to arrange and record Joel’s clas­si­cal com­po­si­tions on a CD, which reached #1 on the Bill­board Charts.

IGUDESMAN & JOO can be seen in sev­eral films, includ­ing their own “Mock­u­men­tary”, “Every­thing You Always Wanted to Know About Clas­si­cal Music”.

Besides tour­ing their duo shows “A Lit­tle Night­mare Music” and “AND NOW MOZART”, they also per­form “BIG Night­mare Music”, with sym­phony orches­tras, and lead their education program “8 To 88 — Musi­cal Edu­ca­tion for Chil­dren of All Ages” at uni­ver­si­ties and music schools around the world, leav­ing stu­dents inspired and con­fi­dent to break new grounds for their own musi­cal journeys.

On New Year’s Eve, 2011, at the Vienna Konz­erthaus, with the help of 100 vio­lin­ists from all over the world, Igudes­man & Joo set the world record for the most “Danc­ing Vio­lin­ists” per­form­ing together on stage. The world record was con­ceived and pro­duced by the duo in aid of UNICEF.