{"id":651,"date":"2019-03-23T08:17:42","date_gmt":"2019-03-23T13:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nassaubaymusiclessons.com\/?p=651"},"modified":"2022-03-05T23:17:16","modified_gmt":"2022-03-06T05:17:16","slug":"viennas-unpredictable-vegetable-orchestra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nassaubaymusiclessons.com\/?p=651","title":{"rendered":"Vienna\u2019s unpredictable Vegetable Orchestra"},"content":{"rendered":"
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They\u2019ve played 300 shows around the world \u2013 and most of their instruments don\u2019t make it through the set.<\/p>\n

by Eliot Stein<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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12 March 2019<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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It\u2019s three hours before showtime and members of an orchestra are seated onstage in the garden of a 1,000-year-old Benedictine monastery outside Cologne, Germany. On cue, the neatly coiffed, black-clad musicians slowly raise their instruments, purse their lips and begin playing the opening passage of Igor Stravinsky\u2019s The Rite of Spring. Just then, a sound technician abruptly cuts them off. The carrot flutes were too strong and he couldn\u2019t hear the leek violin.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne more time,\u201d he says. \u201cStarting with the cucumber.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In the past 21 years, Vienna\u2019s Vegetable Orchestra has played nearly 300 shows all around the world (Credit: Heidrun Henke)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

This is Vienna\u2019s Vegetable Orchestra<\/a>: a 10-piece ensemble from the city of Beethoven, Brahms and Mozart that plays music with instruments made entirely from fresh produce. Over the past 21 years, the group has played nearly 300 shows at packed venues around the globe and performed everything from classical with cabbage to techno with turnips in a rich, rhythmic ratatouille. The orchestra recently released its fourth album after a successful \u2018Krautfunding<\/a>\u2019 (\u2018herb-funding\u2019) campaign and is showing the world that, actually, you can play with your food.<\/p>\n

\u201cVegetables are unpredictable,\u201d said Susanna Gartmayer, who plays the carrot marimba, radish bass flute and a dozen other edible instruments in the group. \u201cNo two pieces of produce are the same. It\u2019s a challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike traditional instruments, which can last for hundreds of years, vegetable instruments quickly go bad, so the orchestra has to create new ones each time it plays. The morning of every show, this group of artists, novelists, architects and designers goes to local markets with a detailed shopping list and carefully combs through the crates. After pounding on the pumpkins, pawing through the parsley and peeling back the onion skins to select just the right produce, the musicians carve, slice and drill their fresh finds into performance-ready instruments. Once the veggies are peeled and cut they may only last about six hours, and whatever the musicians don\u2019t use gets boiled down into a soup that\u2019s served to the audience after the show.<\/p>\n

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