The Challenges of Being a Classical Music Content Creator

By Laurence Vittes | From the March/April 2025 issue of Strings

In late 2024, when TwoSet Violin—the immensely popular classical music comedy duo of Brett Yang and Eddy Chen—announced their impending separation, fans were stunned but perhaps shouldn’t have been. According to the New York Times, “They said they were increasingly worn out by the demands of creating more than 100 videos each year. And, with 4.3 million subscribers on YouTube, they said, they were growing tired of the scrutiny.” Their experience highlights both the demanding nature of being full-time content creators and a broader phenomenon in classical music: the evolution of performer-entertainers who must balance artistic integrity with public engagement.

Creating and maintaining a strong online presence while pursuing a serious musical career presents multiple complex challenges. Digital success demands the constant generation of fresh material across multiple platforms—from performance videos and educational content to lifestyle posts and collaborations, each potentially requiring different treatment for YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. Beyond the traditional musician’s responsibilities like practice and repertoire maintenance, content creators must master entirely new skill sets: filming, editing, and managing a social media presence—a modern echo of flamboyant content creators like Paganini and Chevalier de Saint-Georges (Joseph Bologne), who similarly had to navigate the delicate balance between artistic excellence and public entertainment.

“Our industry doesn’t really use the term ‘content creators,’” notes Andrew Ousley, a leading classical music consultant. “That’s more reserved for people whose sole profession is creating digital content. We’re generally more focused on performance, and the creation of content for social media is a means to that end rather than an end in and of itself. ‘Influencer’ is usually how we describe social media–focused artists.”

Whatever term one chooses, Ousley agrees that there are “some really excellent content creators in our industry—Hilary Hahn, Ray Chen, Eunike Tanzil, Kian Soltani, just to name a few.” One of those musicians, Ray Chen, might even be said to be revolutionizing classical music by blending traditional performance with modern entertainment and community-building approaches that combine classical concerts with elements from contemporary entertainment, including pre-show engagement inspired by gaming culture. “It’s a concept that comes from eSports,” Chen explains.

This impact extends into the digital realm through Chen’s Tonic app, which has amassed more than 200,000 users across 130 countries. The platform transforms solitary music practice into a social experience, reflecting Chen’s broader mission to democratize music education and performance. He envisions making music participation as accessible as physical fitness, asserting that “we’re just a few short years away” from achieving this goal.

This new landscape of classical music content creation is expanding with artists like Drew Alexander Forde (known to his followers as ThatViolaKid), violinist Esther Abrami, and cellist Tina Guo, each bringing their unique perspectives to digital platforms. While Forde weaves together educational insights with entertaining glimpses into a professional musician’s life, Abrami shares intimate behind-the-scenes moments alongside her performances, and Guo produces sophisticated music videos while revealing her creative process.

Other notable content creators include cellist Nathan Chan, who offers viewers both orchestral life insights and innovative pop covers, and violinist Christian Li, whose social media presence blends classical performances with more casual content. Rob Landes has carved out his niche through creative violin arrangements of popular music, while 16-year-old Karolina Protsenko has transformed her street performing background into a compelling online presence. Meanwhile, Brett Yang, having recently departed from TwoSet, has begun exploring new territory as a solo content creator, sharing his personal journey through music and life.

Violinist Abrami offers guidelines for balancing a digital presence with artistic identity. Despite her significant online following (354,000 Instagram followers at press time), the Royal College of Music graduate and Sony Classical artist says, “I don’t really consider myself a content creator. I’m a classical musician, and I create content. The reason I started to create content was because I felt quite lonely. I posted on Instagram first. I saw that there was a community of people who were interested in what I was doing, and that felt like a very, very nice thing to do, especially when I was practicing eight hours a day, locked in a practice room. So it gave me a real opening on being able to share what I was working on, and that’s how it started.”

Abrami’s disciplined approach helps her maintain her focus on musicianship. “I use mornings to focus completely on music. I turn off notifications on my social media, and I don’t open my phone. It allows me to be in my bubble with the music.” In addition to the usual time spent practicing her instrument and rehearsing, Abrami uses whatever free time she can “to generally film” her daily life, “going to the concerts and stuff.”

Drifting further away from traditional approaches, Tyler Thackray, aka ViolinTorture, challenges classical music’s conventions through experimental modifications of violins and other instruments. A self-described “comedic luthier,” Thackray does everything from sawing violins in half to filling them with water, discovering new universes of sound and scales, revealing surprising truths about these instruments’ durability under radical, often violent transmogrifications that recall the H.G. Wells novel The Island of Dr. Moreau.

Dutch violinist Tim Kliphuis brings yet another dimension to content creation through his podcast documentary work, most recently Stéphane Grappelli—His Life and Legacy. Kliphuis says that the “artistic challenge of making a podcast about music is how to interweave tracks that the listener feels say something about what they’ve just heard talked about. You can make a contrast or go along with the mood. It’s a whole different way of selecting songs, which normally you’d do based on whether you like to play them and a mix of fast and slow. In a podcast, they have to tell the story too. Creating ambience is also part of a good podcast—it’s not just talking heads at a table in a boring room.”

A word of caution to aspiring content creators: beyond the demands already discussed, there are also professional relationships that need to be carefully managed. For many traditional musicians and studio professionals, content creation represents a significant departure from established industry norms. In professional recording environments, there has long been an understanding about discretion—sessions aren’t discussed until after official releases, both out of respect for the artist’s announcement preferences and because recorded material may not make the final cut.

The disconnect between traditional industry professionals and content creators can lead to different approaches to privacy and workplace dynamics. When individuals treat professional spaces like broadcast studios, filming and narrating while others are trying to work, it can create tension. Many established professionals prefer those who focus on their craft and document their work organically rather than those who prioritize building a personal brand through constant content creation.

Ultimately, relationships remain the foundation of a musician’s art and professional life, powerfully demonstrated by Ray Chen’s experience with the famed teacher Robert Lipsett at the Colburn School. As Chen recalls, Lipsett “basically adopted me early on as kind of an honorary member of his studio when I was 17, when I was still nobody.” For Chen, thousands of miles from home, this sense of belonging proved invaluable. “He treated his class like a family with love and affection, and devoted his life to his students,” Chen reflects; his story exemplifies how meaningful professional relationships in music extend far beyond mere networking—they create the supportive environments where artistry can flourish.