This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The Piano Guys, the Utah-based piano-and-percussion ensemble, has hit YouTube with the group's latest musical creation — a video shot on the Great Wall of China.
The new video, "Kung Fu Piano: Cello Ascends," shows pianist Jon Schmidt and cellist Steven Sharp Nelson playing on the actual Great Wall of China.
The song is an arrangement (by the group's percussionist, Al Van Der Beek) of a track from the "Kung Fu Panda" score, "Oogway Ascends," with a few licks of Frederick Chopin's Prelude Op. 28 No. 20 in C minor.
(If you're not up on your classical music, it's the same passage of Chopin that Barry Manilow used in his 1975 hit "Could It Be Magic?")
According to the band's website, making the video was quite an accomplishment. The Chinese government gave The Piano Guys access to the Great Wall for 12 hours. A crane raised the grand piano up to the top of the wall, and then 60 locals lugged it by hand up stairs and inclines to the filming site. (This video shows the process.)
The Piano Guys will be performing a Christmas concert on Saturday, Dec. 21, at EnergySolutions Arena in Salt Lake City.