TwoSet Violin release farewell music videos

YouTube stars Eddy Chen and Brett Yang, who announced split in October, are briefly back as faux band of classical composers

NEW YORK - Australian violinists Eddy Chen and Brett Yang arrived in the suburbs of Bangkok, Thailand, recently on a mischievous mission. They had come to record hip-hop videos about Ludwig van Beethoven, Johann Sebastian Bach and other titans of classical music as if they were alive today.

"They called me calloused, called me unfeeling," rapped Chen, dressed as Beethoven with a grey wig and crimson scarf, in one video. "Can't let them know what I am concealing."

It was just another day in the life of Chen and Yang, better known as the comedy duo TwoSet Violin, who have millions of fans for the humour and whimsy they bring to the often very serious world of classical music. Over the past 11 years, they have galvanised a younger generation of musicians and helped dispel their field's stuffy image.

But Chen, 31, and Yang, 32, who are based in Singapore, say they are moving on. They announced in October that TwoSet Violin was ending. They removed nearly all their videos from the internet and wrote on Instagram: "It's been a wild ride with you all."

The post garnered more than 330,000 likes, with many fans in disbelief.

In an interview, the pair - both born in Taiwan and raised in Brisbane, Australia - confirmed they were finished with TwoSet Violin, although they said they would probably continue to work together. They were increasingly worn out by the demands of creating more than 100 videos each year. And, with 4.3 million subscribers on YouTube, they were growing tired of the scrutiny.