Where Classical and Heavy Metal Intersect
At 24 years of age, acoustic and electric cellist Tina Guo is enjoying a varied career as a classical and heavy metal musician. Equally devoted to both styles, Tina hopes to open the hearts and ears of audiences of these seemingly juxtaposing genres. She balances the spiritual and technical eloquence of classical music in manipulating the music and emotion within a defined boundary, and the visceral excitement of paving a new path as a serious rock musician. In fact, Tina believes that these two genres have a lot in common musically. What do you think?
This beautifully produced video features Tina’s arrangement of Gabriel Faure’s Apres un Reve, along with the amazing puppet work of Eli Presser. Absolutely gorgeous.
In stark contrast, this video presents her version of Flight of the Bumblebee with a metal band and electric cello. The instrument used was custom designed for her by Yamaha.
Here’s an original Tina Guo composition called More Than Words.
4 Responses to “Where Classical and Heavy Metal Intersect”
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DAVID CUTLER balances a varied career as a jazz and classical composer, pianist, educator, arranger, conductor, collaborator, concert producer, author, consultant, speaker and advocate. Dr. Cutler teaches at Duquesne University, where he also serves as Coordinator of Music Entrepreneurship Studies.
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[...] Where Classical and Heavy Metal Intersect | the savvy musican blog … [...]
She is very smart…. Not only do I play with a variety of cover bands and license music, but I also use my formal education in classical guitar to bring in an additional income stream… More work load??? Absolutely…. But more money also………
Sounds very savvy, Jeff.
Interesting. This is one of the points I make when I advocate that Metal is music too. Many people consider it “just noise,” but if they really took the time to listen to the virtuosity that is being laid out before them, I believe that they would come to understand the level of musicianship before them. For you, Dr. Cutler, I would recommend listening to the bands Tool, Dream Theater, and Protest the Hero. All metal bands, and all virtuosos in their genre. They all use shifting or odd meters as well, and their songs are thought-provoking and carry meaning. This is something that a lot of people don’t appreciate, and I dislike one of my favorite genres being downtrodden as “unmusical.” (This is why I take an open mind into listening to the pieces you play for us in class. Thanks for that, by the way.)