The Best Orchestra Pranks Ever

_______________________________________

[raa-jj]

I would love to see an orchestra rickrolling everyone. I imagine half the audience walking out, stone-faced.

[liamritz]

Wow!!! Can’t believe you featured my Wagner Happy Birthday arrangement – thanks so much!

For backstory, this was performed by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (and Toronto Mendelssohn Choir) for Sir Andrew Davis’ 75th birthday! As you can see in the video, he was truly shocked when the orchestra began playing happy birthday!

Such a fun night for the audience and orchestra and great way to celebrate one of our longtime conductors at the TSO!

[Imagine_Artist]

When you prank someone but it’s sophisticated:

[TwityGirl]

I like it how every YouTube channel says "don't forget to subscribe, " meanwhile twosetviolin says "go practice."

That's good for society.

[fallinlight]

as a person who doesn't have english as a first language and need to have captions to understand and make out the words said, i just want to thank twoset for providing almost all of their videos with captions <3

[alliu]

5:35 I just realized: this is Eddy foreshadowing the prank he’s gonna pull on Brett for the 4 mil concert AND IT WAS MENDELSSOHN TOO

[wdskmusic]

As a conductor i must admit that the first one touched me deeply. There is no bigger compliment or, no bigger i don't know achievement even, to just be together with orchestra, no matter the institution and no matter the other eventual disandvanteges. It's amazing that most likely someone from the orchestra members took their effort in order to perform this for Sir Roger Norringnton's birthday while they most likely were rehearsing Beethoven's 3rd in E-flat major. Honestly i am not surprised why Sir Norrington seems so happy, this is the biggest compliment an orchestra can give to a conductor i tell you!

Short edit: I also forgot about one thing which is absolutely heartwarming for me honestly. It's wonderful that even if anyone who participates in a production has birthday meanwhile rehearsing, it usually happens that all orchestra members together with a conductor and rest of the crew (opera-speaking) agrees for that because mister Heniek from technical crew had birthday during the rehearsal time it's honestly amazing!

Another edit: The one with the conductor recieving a happy birthday arrangement from the orchestra just made me cry. Nobody bothered that it was during a concert, apparently this conductor was liked by the orchestra and choir and other members but still, it just feels like a glorious pleasure as if you have birthday and then out of sudden, 70 people out of blue modulate from the piece you're supposed to do and then play and sing happy birthday just for you. My heart cracks as i'm writing it, i fucking love to be a musician nothing can beat that!

[mrs.brunke]

I really enjoyed the Happy Birthday pranks. Several years ago I was a guest artist with a Dutch orchestra and one of the rehearsals fell on my birthday but I hadn't mentioned it to anyone. We were rehearsing the Telemann concerto I was doing with them or so I thought. The conductor gave the downbeat, I played my first note along with the orchestra, and then I stopped because I knew immediately that they were not playing what they were supposed to. They played a lovely version of the Dutch birthday song for me. I was so touched at their thoughtfulness. This was a very fun video.

[a.a]

Gotta love a wholesome prank where the goal is to "trick" someone into feeling loved and cared for rather than angry/betrayed!

[persen]

TwoSet: "I's so cool when soloists can whip out something on the spot"
Jazz: "IM NOT DEAD YET!

[Nicole-dgre]

that awkward feeling when everyone else is singing you a happy birthday song and you don't know what to do is amplified 40x with the whole orchestra, choir, and concert hall watching u sksjsk

still this is so wholesome!

[CinnamonFudge]

there's no better way to feel loved than to have an entire orchestra remake a piece just to play happy birthday ultra epic version to you. I would absolutely cry if something like that was done for me

[cathyb]

I usually hate pranks but these ones are so heartwarming 😄

[estherpettigrew]

As a musician, and specifically a pianist, I couldn't stop grinning at the wonderful cadenza. It was genius! And thank you, Twoset, for explaining how it worked so everyone could appreciate and enjoy.

[olympiadeverre]

That first conductor has such a look of unadulterated joy on his face, it made me get super teary

[Crocco]

I can't stop laughing at 5:27. Eddy was telling us what to expect at the concert 🤣!

[JustAnotherBuckyLover]

I'm just in love that they're planning something special for 4M when they had to scramble for the 2M because they genuinely only meant to prank us and didn't realise how many people really wanted to see Brett play Tchaikovsky (and Eddy play the orchestra)...

[LivvyL]

I have to thank TwoSet for giving me the idea of “pranking” the conductor with Happy Birthday arrangement. I told our school orchestra violin teacher to arrange a Happy Birthday to play the day before our conductor’s Birthday (because that is the day we had rehearsals). Although it was just happy birthday straight away and not having an “A to B” arrangement, our conducteur loved it and his reaction was PRICELESS.

Edit: Thanks for 100 likes:D

[utha]

Just imagine the respect these musicians hold for the prank victim? The effort that goes into some of these pranks is epic and the huge smile on their faces are all worth the effort. That last prank during the cadenza was just perfect.

[saphiro]

My high school choir pranked our conductor for a Christmas Concert. He had a wand he loved to use, but the thing was ANCIENT! He had it for 10 years before I graced his choir room.

Anyway, we had been browsing(with the help of his wife, who taught Spanish), and found a wand he REALLY loved, and had it engraved with his name on it. It arrived about a week for the concert, so we had to work fast.

We rigged his old wand to snap in half if he hit the music stand too hard, which was his sign that we screwed up on something, and he was trying to bring us back in line. The new wand came in a tube, which we put in a box, then inside another box, then inside another box, which sat under the piano bench at the concert hall. We convinced our entire Soprano section to drop into a dissonance with the chord we were building, making the piece sound off.

As predicted, the sopranos dropped, he whacked his old wand on the stand, and it broke in half. We finished the song, as 2 seniors brought the box up. The look on his face when he finally got to the wand inside: PRICELESS! First thing he did was point at his wife, who was also the piano player, to which she mimed, “not me, them”, pointing at all of us. He was shocked for a minute, then told the audience that his choir bought him a new wand. It cost us $450, because of the high quality we paid for, and the engraving, plus it came with a stand.