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Prokofiev grandson mixes it with Yoda
By Katherine Barney, Evening Standard 26.07.07
Star: DJ Yoda supported Lily Allen
Musical heritage: Gabriel Prokofiev
Original: Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev
One is a descendant of Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev. The other is a top hip hop DJ.
Tonight, their two musical worlds will converge as Gabriel Prokofiev, grandson of the man who composed Peter And The Wolf, conducts the Heritage Orchestra accompanied by DJ Yoda.
The orchestra will perform Concerto For Turntables And Orchestra, written by Prokofiev junior, while DJ Yoda "scratches" records in time with the rhythm.
The concert, called Classical Music For The Hoodie Generation, is designed to introduce clubbers to an alternative form of music.
Prokofiev, 32, has recorded samples from orchestral instruments for the DJ to mix while the orchestra plays.
The score gives DJ Yoda rhythmic and pitch guidelines but much of his part is improvised. DJ Yoda has already earned himself an army of fans after impressing crowds at the Glastonbury festival and supporting pop singer Lily Allen.
He said: "Coming from a background of DJing at clubs and festivals - and very much working by myself - to suddenly find myself scratching with an entire classical orchestra to crowds like this will be a real eye- opener and an unforgettable experience - not like anything else I've ever done."
Prokofiev's father Oleg, an artist, was a Soviet defector who filled the family's home in Greenwich with music when he was a child and he has said that his ancestry led to a lot of pressure on him to be a good pianist.
However, he established himself in his own right when the Elysian String Quartet, based at Trinity College of Music in Blackheath, released a commissioned recording of his String Quartet No 1 on his own record label, Nonclassical, in 2004.
The composition, heavily influenced by dance music, won rave reviews and has received airplay on Radio 1 and Radio 3.
Prokofiev claims his artistic creed is to "keep developing things but they have to come naturally, not commercially"-He said: "From Edgard Varèse's experiments with reel-to-reel and ' organised sound', to the protosampling of Musique Concrète, led by Pierre Schaeffer in the Fifties, classical composers have a rich history of manipulating recorded sounds that stretches back long before Kool Herc or Grandmaster Flash scratched their first records."
Concerto For Turntables And Orchestra will be performed at The Scala, 275 Pentonville Road, King's Cross. Doors open at 8pm and tickets are £16.
For more information, visit www.myspace.com/concertoforturntables
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