Comical classical chaos as cellist’s bow explodes in the middle of a contemporary music recital
14 October 2022, 18:13 | Updated: 14 October 2022, 18:21
A cello virtuoso had a sudden surprise when her cello bow objected mid-performance (she jokingly blamed it on ‘too much contemporary music’).
Zoë Martlew, a composer and cello virtuoso, had an unfortunate incident with her bow during a concert at the Dark Music Days festival in Reykjavik, Iceland.
The cellist was performing contemporary composer Juliana Hodkinson’s ‘amazing noise piece’ Scrape for cello and metal plate, when the hair attached to her bow pinged off after a dramatic up-bow.
She exclaimed: “It's lucky I've got a spare bow with me! Sorry everyone, that's too much contemporary music!”
Watch major bow fail during live performance
Not only did the bow explode, but the hair instantly became knotted in the cello's tuning pegs. Before heading off-stage to fetch her spare bow, Zoë also had to untie her foot from a pedal connected to the electronic sounds in the performance.
She jokingly told the audience: “Do talk amongst yourselves. It's lucky we only got a minute in!”
Music is always full of surprises. If we’ve learned anything from this, it’s that we should always carry a spare bow... just in case.
