When classical pianist Lionel Yu hit the stage, no one was quite ready for what he was gonna drop on them. Yu began with a beautiful take of “Moonlight Sonata,” but this was not gonna be just another Beethoven recital. As the piece progressed, Yu began playing a more frantic and complex version of the music, but the big reveal came when he reached over to his laptop.
A bombastic dubstep beat dropped next, shocking the crowd. Yu weaved around the beat, playing a brilliant virtuoso piano arrangement to the dubstep rhythms provided by YouTuber Lone-R. Yu, whose own YouTube channel is called We Are One, scored a huge viral hit with his unique take on the famous Beethoven piece, as 17 million music lovers tuned in to hear it. Here on The Music Man it’s our pleasure to share quirky and brilliant performances, and Yu def brought it to the next level with this one!
Yu has many uploads with more than a million views, but his take on “Moonlight Sonata” remains his most popular. Fans gave it a rave reception, adding comments such as “As someone who trained classically for years, this is absolutely beautiful in every way. Music doesn’t have to be played exactly as written, it’s meant to be played with your soul, and that’s exactly what this is” and “The masters would have their breath taken away to hear their works being played in such a magnificent manner.”
Yu performed his memorable take on “Moonlight Sonata” at The Kennedy Center in Washington DC on March 13, 2022. He sure was on fire that day, as he also shot another hugely popular video during the same performance. In the second video, he allows the audience to pick his next song, and then performs Antonio Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons,” but of course, with a surprise twist.
Lionel Yu is a Chinese-American classical pianist and educator. The Music Man readers may be interested to hear that he was born in Hangzhou, China, but moved to the US in his youth, where he has been based ever since. Yu has 1.27 million subscribers on YouTube, where he shares his performances and covers. Yu’s favorite type of content to share on the channel is his unique takes on famous classical and contemporary songs, which often showcase wildly different arrangements from the original pieces. He also creates sheet music and other content for his long-running website Musical Basics.
If you would like to hear more from this talented pianist, you can subscribe to their YouTube Channel for more incredible music. You can also follow them on Instagram .
