The efforts of thousands of athletes at the Olympics in Rio over the past two-and-a-half weeks appear to have had an impact on some musicians, who tried to come up with their own competitive challenges.
On the Upper West Side of Manhattan last week, a group of musicians from the International Contemporary Ensemble came together for the Stupid Musician Tricks event, where a several Olympics-inspired competitions were held.
By far the most entertaining to watch was the wind chime relay, which required two teams to attempt to be the quietest in transporting a full set of wind chimes across the stage. WQXR’s video of the event shows the musicians encouraging volunteers from the audience to join in.
Other challenges were the Gliss Off, where brass and wind players had to hold a glissando for as long as possible with one breath, and Name that Metronome Speed, which required musicians to guess the number of beats per minute the metronome was set at as a pianist played Mozart.