“A long time ago, in a concert far, far away…”
Two classical pianists engaged in musical battle. They call themselves — the Super Piano Brothers.
The words are outlined in the iconic yellow “Star Wars” font, and just like in the films, slowly shrink away from the viewer and into outer space. Dramatic tremolos sound, as the suspense builds and bursts into an original arrangement of the infamous “Star Wars” theme. Onstage, two classical pianists face one another, surrounded by red, blue and green quasars, or long light tubes that resemble lightsabers. Their fingers fly across the keyboards, as the music seamlessly moves from one “Star Wars” theme to another.
The Epic “Star Wars” piano duel is a seven-part video series the Super Piano Brothers premiered on YouTube in December, in line with the release of the second season of “The Mandalorian.” It was recorded at the Barrett Hall of the Pasadena Conservatory by USC Thornton School of Music alumni Alexander Zhu and Wesley Chu. As core members of the Super Piano Brothers, they said their mission is to perform high quality renditions of music from popular media.
“I am willing to wager that 99% of anyone who’s ever come into contact with movies, video games or anime has been touched by those productions in a large part due to the music,” Chu said. “It’s only spurred us forward to put our own spin on that.”
Chu and his childhood friend and co-founder, Oskar Yao started the Super Piano Brothers in 2012. The two pianists said it began as a way to weave their classical training with their favorite music from films, TV and video games, performing the music as its own standalone listening experience.
“This music is enough of a universal language that people will be able to enjoy the context of where exactly it came from,” Yao said. “We want to become the brand that people go to when they think of this.”
Chu and Yao both grew up in Calgary, Canada. Their whole lives revolved around piano. They didn’t go to parties or hang out with other kids after school, so they said any free time outside of practicing piano was spent on playing video games. In elementary school, they started to combine these two interests by playing this music they picked up from TV and video games for their friends. It instantly became a way for them to connect with other people their age.
“It was my main means of expression,” Chu said. “There weren’t too many people who were doing what we were doing, so we were really drawn to each other and to the music.”
Chu and Yao continued playing music with each other all throughout school and even after they parted ways for their conservatory educations, though they said it became more difficult. Chu left for Boston to study at the New England Conservatory while Yao attended the Columbia University/Juilliard exchange program. Afterwards, Chu went off to Los Angeles to pursue his graduate studies at USC, which is where he met Zhu who later became a part of their team.
After hearing about an open call for a talent competition from the East Coast Asian American student union in 2012, Yao said they decided to submit a YouTube video and won. This was the first time they put themselves out as the Super Piano Brothers onstage at Columbia University in front of 2,000 people.
The name “Super Piano Brothers” was suggested by a friend for its uncanny resemblance to “Super Smash Brothers”, a game Chu said impacted his life most. The video game brings together characters from a large variety of competing franchises who otherwise would never have the ability to interact, such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Mario and Princess Zelda. Chu said this was the first time he experienced how different characters can transcend borders. In the same way, he realized musical genres can cross borders too.
“You get this overwhelming sense of camaraderie, a friendship of cooperation,” Chu said. “That is at the heart of what I want to bring to the world as a creator and as an artist.”
As classically trained pianists, maintaining a high standard and level of refinement is most important for the Super Piano Brothers. It’s also what sets them apart from other musicians who simply play covers of music from video games, film and pop culture, they said. For instance, the Super Piano Brothers perform on acoustic pianos, rather than keyboards, and they put hours and hours into creating original arrangements that are structured and refined with the same standards held in classical music. One of their past projects included a classical spin on Pokémon they called “Carnival of the Pokémon,” which they said was based on the “Carnival of the Animals” by Saint-Saens.
“We want to uphold the finesse and the refinement and the technique that’s been taught to us over all these years, but at the same time we want to do it genuinely,” Yao said. “We want them to believe in the fact that this music is beautiful.”
In their Epic “Star Wars” piano duel, each episode is filmed in one take and performed onstage like a live classical performance. The pianists said they draw directly from their classical technique and background to bring out musical nuances. For instance, the pianists build greater suspense and achieve emotional complexity by layering sounds with large chords, harmonic intricacies and rapid runs.
“We take this seriously because we see music from the media being just as valid and serious and as important as classical music is for us,” Zhu said. “There’s no border…and I think part of our vision is we want to see that treated in the same way.”
An important aspect of the Epic “Star Wars” piano duel series is the deliberate construction of each movement, Chu said. The videos are titled as episodes, with names ranging from “Love” to “War,” and within each movement, the Super Piano Brothers have woven in a number of musical themes from the “Star Wars” series.
They’ve also sprinkled in little “easter eggs,” or motifs from Gustav Holst’s major orchestral work, “The Planets” throughout. Zhu said Holst is known for being an important influence in John Williams’ “Star Wars” musical output and space music inspiration. The most obvious example he said is that the “Star Wars’” “Imperial march” and Holst’s “Mars,” the first movement from “The Planets,” are both written in the key of G minor, characterized as a march in 5/4 time and use the same orchestration.
“We know that march music in G minor is about war,” Zhu said. “The consciousness of [”The Planets”] is kind of embedded in all of us.”
As a film composer himself, Zhu said he often has to watch films without music, and the visuals alone do not nearly have as powerful of an effect. In the original “Star Wars” (1977) film, there is a scene where Luke Skywalker (played by Mark Hamill) is standing on the desert planet, watching the Twin Suns set after his aunt and uncle have been massacred by the empire.
“Without that foreign French melody, without the music, the viewer doesn’t know how to feel. Music is an emotional indicator and it’s so vital,” Zhu said. “It’s the absence of music when we start to realize it’s important.”
Though “Star Wars” fans will likely feel most connected to the Epic “Star Wars” piano duel, the Super Piano Brothers emphasize that this music is for everyone. They hope to bring this music out of the mediums they are attached to and provide the space for people to enjoy the music in its own light.
For the most part, it’s paying off. Yao said they’ve had people who have come up to them thanking for creating the bridge between these two worlds of classical music and popular media. But they’ve also had their share of criticism. Because classical music is a genre steeped with hundreds of years of tradition, Yao said some people have told them that what they’re doing is not “true classical music.” Non-musicians often have a preconception that the genre is elitist, restrictive and exclusive, Chu added. As the Super Piano Brothers, they hope to do their part in reclaiming what classical music means.
“We want to turn that on its head and say no, classical music actually can be very inclusive,” Chu said. “It can be extremely invigorating and exciting and here’s how.”
Though they’ve had several breaks and hiatuses over the past eight years, the Super Piano Brothers assure that they’re back in full force this time. They are already planning a full Zelda suite to perform in person after the pandemic is over, and an elaborate Super Smash Brothers project that Chu said he has been slowly cooking for 10 years.
“We overwhelmingly want people to know that this is something that we’re dedicated to,” Yao said. “We’re here to stay, we’re back.”
The Zoom room filled with laughter and a sense of camaraderie between the three musicians.
“That’s literally the story of every video game ever, and every hero’s journey story that you see in movies,” Chu said. “We’re back and we’re super, so get ready.”