Musical mash-up-of-the-month: Shaquille O'Neal making his conducting debut last night (December 20) at the Boston Pops Orchestra’s holiday concert.

I heard about this last week and wondered about the back story. The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Web site offers last week's press release, but no additional information (unfortunately).

Tell me (Molly) if you find any info telling us how this event came to be!

(via youngmanhattanite)

“Over the past year, an increasing number of classical musicians have been launching into unannounced performances in marketplaces and transit hubs — and videos of these impromptu concerts have reached a wide audience on the internet.”

“So what drives musicians to do this? At the heart of it is the pure satisfaction of making mischief and surprising people. But for most artists, the goal is to bring classical music to people who wouldn’t otherwise hear it. Sometimes, as in the case of the video above, it’s to promote an "official” performance. Other times, there’s no profit involved, and musicians just want to reignite the spirit of fun and improvisation that was behind the music in the first place.“

(via Out Of The Concert Hall, Into The Street: Random Acts Of Classical Music : Deceptive Cadence : NPR)