RIP RIP RIP! The Great Kat Shreds Beethoven

This Juilliard-trained violinist puts the pedal to the metal in a neo-classical tint. The Great Kat, shifting her former violin-love to electric guitar-love, prides herself on the Paganini technique: a left-handed skill she learned at Juilliard which relies on strong attacks. Her mission is to bring classical music to the masses via shred metal, a sub-genre of heavy metal music. Kat says that dead Maestros such as Beethoven, Vivaldi, Mozart and Paganini compliment the fast and furious strains of shred metal.

After graduating with honors from Juilliard and touring the world on violin, she realized that, "classical music was dead, so she began updating Classical Music with Speed Metal and transcribed intricate violin solos to the guitar." Now she mixes Beethoven's 5th, Bach's Brandenburg, and Paganini's Caprice 24 with her shredding styles. Below is "Beethoven Mush", which she claims is the "Beethoven of the 21st century"; Well, if Beethoven carried RIAA's Parental Advisory warning. \m/ \m/

[Update] Thanks to commentator, David, we've been pointed to a Youtube clip of a tête-à-tête between mustachioed '90s anchorman, George Ciccarone, who speaks to Kat from a NYC flophouse, where she smacks a portrait of Beethoven (her entire room is plastered in Beethoven posters), harasses old people, and compares herself to Jeanne d'Arc and Madame Curie. Her tagline: "You don't know Great Kat? Then get outta here!"

 

Comments

[david]

I'm in awe.

A clip of her on Good Day New York:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENo4EZ-OEJo

Interestingly, in the clip she's just what I imagined OC would be like.

[Bec]

whoa! I usually hate most electric guitar, but that was quite enlightening to say the least! Thanks for the link!

[Linda Smith]

Sounds like a good marketing strategy:).

[Taylors]

Wow David! Thanks for that clip! She's got a set of, um, lungs on her?

Honestly, I find that reporter's hair and mustache combo more disturbing than anything else in the youtube clip.

[Fabrice]

well, i'm not a purist - on the contrary, i'm pretty much interested in musical contaminations of all kind.
that said: this sounds really old, much older than the classical music she claims to be dead... instant exploitation heavy metal for empty banging heads.
wish she had used her technical skills in a more creative way.

[littleshotlarry]

She seems to have borderline personality disorder. I agree that although this is amusing and skillful, this is basically a huge waste of her talents. And I am a metal fan. I think she could embrace metal music in an artistic way instead of an exploitative one. It's sort of an insult to the good in both genres. I would love to see an artistically valid, metal/classical hybrid in which the artist covers themselves in blood in the video. Her arrangements are not artistically valid, her stunts are simply stunts and not statements, and all that's left is her considerable skill. I can hear shredding in guitar center any day of the week. What I'm interested in is art.

[Xalira]

Oh God, this is such an old idea! How many people did already do that? -.-