Britain awaits the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra
By Laura Clout
Last Updated: 11:01am GMT 16/11/2007
telegraph.co.uk
They give the phrase 'playing with your food' a whole new meaning - and now the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra is coming to Britain.
You tube: The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra
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The unique ensemble, which performs on instruments made of fresh vegetables, will play at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival next week.
A range of the orchestra's prize instruments
Founded in 1998, the 11-strong group carve their produce before every show, using celeriac bongos, carrot recorders and the multi-vegetable 'cucumberphone' to play everything from contemporary to house, jazz to classical.
They prefer organic produce and use highly sensitive microphones to pick up the subtlest crunch of onion skin or squeak of lettuce leaves.
"We got the idea one day while we were cooking and chopping tomatoes," Nicklaus Gansterer, co-founder of the orchestra, said. "We got fascinated with the sound the chopping made, and from that moment we have started to hear music in a new way."
VVO performs 20 to 30 times a year around the world, including benefit concerts for vegetable workers in Southern Spain, who the musicians say endure "inhumane conditions".
Performances promise to "appeal to all the senses", and at the end of most concerts the audience is offered fresh vegetable soup made from the instruments.
However, hungry fans in Huddersfield will be disappointed, as Health and Safety regulations mean soup is banned - even without the parts the orchestra have blown on.
The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra play at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (01484 425082; www.hcmf.co.uk) on November 24.
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