Sleight of hand: The weird and kooky theremin to take flight with the ACO
You’ve heard the kooky, sometimes spooky theremin in countless songs, movies and TV themes, but now you get to experience this weird instrument in a concert with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
It’s creepy and it’s kooky, mysterious and spooky … but not altogether ooky. What is it? Trick question but the answer is not the Addams Family. I’m referring to that unique instrument the theremin.
Doesn’t sound familiar? Well, the name may not but the sound is. You’ve heard it in the theme music for TV’s Midsomer Murders and the Disney+ series Loki as well as many movies, including the sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still. The theremin was also used on Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love by Jimmy Page.
The instrument is named after its inventor, Russian physicist Leon Theremin, who invented it in 1920 and patented the device in 1928. It was the product of Soviet government-sponsored research into proximity sensors. Theremin toured Europe with it playing to packed houses before moving to the US where he patented it. It has intrigued people ever since and it’s rather a unique instrument in the sense that it is controlled without physical contact.
It’s the world’s first electronic instrument and is capable of conjuring one thousand different colours and moods, from serenity and beauty to longing and danger, mystery and wonder. And when it comes to mastering this extraordinary instrument, none have scaled the heights farther than German-Sorb musician Carolina Eyck. (The Sorbs are a West Slavic ethnic minority living primarily in the Lusatia region of eastern Germany.)
Eyck is touring the country in May, joining artistic director Richard Tognetti and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Beginning in Wollongong and taking in Sydney, Brisbane (May 12), Melbourne and Canberra, Theremin & Beyond is a national tour that explores the mesmerising sounds of the theremin. From the swinging songs of The Beach Boys and the unmistakable Star Trek theme to a new commission from Australian composer Holly Harrison and the riotous thrumming of the Flight of the Bumblebee, this is a concert full of fun that will take audiences to other worlds.
Eyck began learning the theremin at the age of seven, receiving lessons from the niece of Leon Theremin, the inventor of the instrument. She quickly progressed, making her solo debut with the Berlin Philharmonic at just 16. At that same age Eyck developed her own technique for the theremin, revolutionising the sound of the instrument and how it is played the world over.
Along with bringing the theremin to the stages of famed halls such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. and the Konzerthaus Berlin, Eyck has found a large and devoted fan base online. Her highly virtuosic and stylised videos that feature theremin performances of beloved classics, including Ennio Morricone’s The Ecstasy of Gold, Saint-Saens The Swan and Mozart’s Queen of the Night, have received tens of millions of views across TikTok and YouTube.
Eyck says she is excited to be touring Australia for the first time.
Subscribe for updates
“We will be taking audiences on a journey through the musical repertoire of the theremin and our program will include a variety of genres and showcase the many colours the instrument has to offer,” she says. “It’s definitely going to be a lot of fun!”
Weird fun at that.
Theremin & Beyond will be performed at QPAC’s Concert Hall on May 12, 7.30pm. Tour details at aco.com.au