On Monday, April 8, Penn State Abington and LEAP hosted an electric violinist by the name of Alex Ahn. Ahn, originally from Atlanta, Ga., entertained students and faculty with an interactive, viewer-created set list of snippets of popular music that he accompanied with his instrument. Ahn took requests from the audience and attempted to improvise and play along.
The crowd was shy at first until someone requested the song “Location” by Khalid, a slower ballad. Ahn played along with the melody and the lyrics almost effortlessly in a way that left the crowd in awe. The next song, “A Thousand Miles” by Vanessa Carlton, proved to be a challenge to him, however.
Ahn stated, “This is so hard” while trying to keep up with the quicker paced melody. The requests spanned genres and decades and included other songs like the current country-rap hit “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X and older rock songs like “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen and “Kashmir” by Led Zeppelin. The viewer-created set had listeners on the edge of their seats in amazement at the sounds he was making with his electric violin.
Along with his musical accompaniment Ahn joked with the crowd between songs, stating, “I’m from the ATL, I do like hardcore [rap, hip-hop] songs like “Mo Bamba.”” He kept viewers engaged with various jokes and even added some information about why, for him, certain songs are harder to play than others.
He explained, “Producers use sounds that are between notes so it can be hard for me to play it.”
For the final song, after a request for the “Spongebob Squarepants Theme Song,” Ahn told the crowd he was going to play an EDM (Electronic Dance Music) style song. Whispers of guesses began to circulate and the crowd was surprised when he began to play along with an EDM version of the “Baby Shark” song. Between jokes and the demonstration of his talent, Ahn earned a standing ovation from the room.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.