Melding his classical training with years of Colorado mountain woodshedding, Bobby Yang is reinventing the sound of the acoustic violin. His inimitable sound combines the virtuosity of the violin with the dirt of a bluegrass fiddle and the rawness of a guitar. He has surrounded himself with musicians who share his madness, his Unrivaled Players, while touring internationally.
Bobby also produces legendary dance parties. His dance band, BPM, combines a live jam band with a track-sampling DJ. Yang and BPM take over Top 40, Motown, classic country, hip-hop, EDM and indie rock tracks, creating live remixes on the spot. They've performed for New Year's Eve in Aspen, summer soirées in Portugal, wild NFL and NBA wedding receptions, and star-studded dance parties. Wherever they go, they bring the virtuosity of a live band and the body-moving beats of a DJ... BPM has seen a million faces (and rocked 'em all).
Alongside dance parties, Bobby and his band perform classic rock jams, and his latest album "The Lost Cosmonaut," a heroic and heartbreaking album of original instrumental music, on his latest tour. It's a soundtrack for the most inspiring film you've never seen and features lush instrumental songs with memorable melodies. At each show, Bobby shares the story of The Lost Cosmonaut, an astronaut who was a hero of the race to space in the late 50s.
For his signature classic rock jams, Yang's violin acts as both the lead singer and guitarist, as the songs of Led Zeppelin, RUSH, and other rock legends, become instrumental jams.
In his own words: Its time for the violin to get dirty. And to clarify, he means the acoustic. His rendition of Eddie Van Halen's Eruption solo, a solo featured on Van Halen's debut album, is touted as better than the original, and Yang does it acoustically, without pedals or effects, on a wooden violin.
He perfected his classical chops while earning his Masters in Violin Performance with Paul Kantor at the University of Michigan and is a frequent soloist with symphony orchestras, including a breakthrough Harris Concert Hall performance of Mozart's 3rd Violin Concerto with improvised cadenzas and a last movement in-cadenza tribute to Hendrix's 'Hey Joe'. This cadenza was a prelude to his current musical success.
Bobby's passion for rock has led him to new venues, including regular in-game performances for the NBA, NHL and NFL, rock clubs from NY to CA with his band, and music festivals including Stagecoach at Coachella, The Rock Boat, and the Downtown Hoedown in Detroit. Bobby's original compositions have earned the admiration of Top 40 musicians who invite him to write string arrangements for their pop and rock singles. In the studio, he uses the violin to create orchestral layers, composing parts for the cello, viola, and violin, and then performs each part on a separate track to create a recorded orchestra.
Yang is featured on Collective Soul's album 'Rabbit'. He worked closely with Butch Walker crafting string arrangements for several songs on Walker's album 'Letters'. His work with Walker earned him the opportunity to record with Avril Lavigne, Cowboy Mouth, and Default. He has also worked with acclaimed 311 and Tool producer Ron Saint Germain.
Bobby has released three albums: the debut No. 1 Tribute, his second album, YANG IT! Live from Eddies Attic... YANG IT! - his personal motto - is a call for people to do their best and to do it with their own personal panache; the opposite of WING IT! And, now, "The Lost Cosmonaut."
When he isn't performing with his Unrivaled Players, Bobby is Kevin Costner's fiddler in Costner's band Modern West. He is featured in Costner's movie "Swing Vote". And in 2014, Bobby performed on the CBS Late Late Show w/Craig Ferguson alongside The Alternate Routes. Also in 2014, Bobby performed the live national anthem on solo violin for Monday Night Football on ESPN - it was Bobby's largest live audience to date: 12.7 million viewers, and it was the first solo instrumental anthem in NFL history. In 2015, Bobby was invited back to play the anthem for Thursday Night Football on the NFL Network at the last-ever home game for the St. Louis Rams. In the spring and summer of 2017, Bobby has enjoyed trading solos on stage with the iconic John Popper and his GRAMMY award-winning band Blues Traveler.
While some violinists are clamoring to revolutionize the string world with the electric violin, Yang is proving that perhaps it isn't the violin that needs changing; it's the violinist.
Listen to Bobby's music and connect with him on social at www.bobbyyang.com
Discography:
2013 Bobby Yang "The Lost Cosmonaut" full-length album
2007 Bobby Yang and his Unrivaled Players (second album) "YANG IT! Live at Eddie's Attic"
2005 Bobby Yang (debut album) "No. 1 Tribute"
String Arrangements:
2016 Devon Allman "Ride Or Die" full-length album [Ruf Records]
2016 The Alternate Routes "Somewhere In America" [Alternate Routes Records]
2015 The Alternate Routes "Show Me The World" [Alternate Routes Records]
2012 Tawiah "(untitled)" [Warner Bros. Music]
2012 Kevin Costner "Best of Kevin Costner & Modern West" full-length album [Universal Music Group]
2011 Kevin Costner "Untold Truths/Turn It On (The Story So Far)" full-length album [Universal Music Group]
2010 Devon Allman "Space Age Blues" full-length album [Provogue Records]
2010 Marcus Johnson "This Is How I Rock" full-length album [Three Keys Music]
2010 Kevin Costner & Modern West "Turn It On" full-length album [Universal Music Group]
2009 Collective Soul Collective Soul (Rabbit) full-length album [Roadrunner Records]
2008 Kevin Costner & Modern West Untold Truths full-length album [Universal Music Group]
2007 Avril Lavigne Imagine album single [Amnesty International Make Some Noise Campaign]
2007 Cowboy Mouth Avenue album single [Eleven Thirty Records]
2007 Rocketscience featuring Aerosmiths Steven Tyler Writers Block album single [Offshore Records]
2007 Rocketscience Van Go album single [Offshore Records]
2006 Progressive String Quartet Tribute to Pantera [Tribute Sounds Records]
2006 Default Count On Me album single [TVT Records]
2006 Quietdrive Rush Together album single [Sony/Epic Records]
2005 Butch Walker Letters full-length album [Sony/Epic Records]
2005 Default All She Wrote radio single [TVT Records]