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Best YouTube Channels for Listening to and Learning Classical Music in a Fun Way

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Are you worried that your child might not enjoy classical music?

Classical music is rich and varied, and even the newest listener can find music from the broad classical genre they will enjoy.

For children, starting with short listening pieces from various composers and eras is a great way to expose them to the classical music. Get my list here.

YouTube also offers endless possibilities for learning about instruments, composers and watching and listening to great or creative performances of classical music.

Here are the best YouTube channels for learning and listening to classical music in a fun way:

Classical Performers

The Piano Guys
The Piano Guys was originally formed in 2011 to draw attention to a piano store called The Piano Guys through social media – namely YouTube. The group consists of four men, Paul Anderson, the piano store owner and videographer, pianist Jon Schmidt, cellist Steve Sharp Nelson, and music producer Al van der Beek. They immediately became popular and went on to record studio albums while continuing to make entertaining and inspiring videos, which are filmed all over the world, for their YouTube channel. They are known for their imaginative combinations of classical and contemporary songs, such as combining Vivaldi’s “Winter” and Disney’s “Let It Go”.  They also use their classical sound to record music from all kinds of genres like pop, classic rock, film scores, R&B, hip hop, country, and more.

Symphoniacs
Symphoniacs is another innovative group of talented classical musicians who crossover classical compositions with electronic music. Based in Berlin, this group currently consists of six men of two violinists – Johannes Fleischmann and Paul Kropfitsch, two cellists – Colin Stokes and Konstantin Manaev, a pianist, Philipp Scheucher, and an electronic artist, Andy Leomar, who also founded the group. In the past, they have had an additional violinist and pianist as well. When they perform, they create an experience with the use of LED, light and laser-show effects.

TwoSet Violin
TwoSet Violin is an Australian comedy and classical music violin duo made up of Brett Yang and Eddy Chen. They create videos based on their lives as students at conservatory and classical musicians, often making commentary on interesting situations in the music world. They want to make classical music relevant to the modern generation through fun, humor and simplicity.

2 Cellos
The 2 Cellos YouTube channel has videos of talented cellists, Luka Sulic and Hauser, performing together. They each have their own channels as well which feature beautiful music – both classical and popular covers – filmed in surprising and gorgeous settings. Here are their individual channels:
Luka Sulic
Hauser

Lev Weksler
A double bassist, Lev has videos of an instrument that is rarely seen as a solo instrument playing lively and fast-paced songs sure to catch a young or new listener’s attention.

Lord Vinheteiro
Lord Vinheteiro (Fabrício André Bernard di Paolo) is a pianist who makes videos and shorts of classical music, video game music, cinema, and other genres usually sporting a deadpan expression. His videos range in content from him playing the same song on a cheap piano and then on high end artsy pianos to see if you hear the difference to showing what it’s like to be a piano player for the group ABBA. He makes his own piano arrangements and has amusing shorts.

Melodica Men
This YouTube channel features the duo of classically trained brass players Joe Buono and Tristan Clarke playing famous classical pieces, movie music and popular music on the unique instrument the melodica. The melodica is a free reed instrument with a keyboard, and to play it, one has to blow into the reed while fingering the keyboard. The Melodica Men make their videos entertaining by dressing up to match the theme of the performance.

Educational Channels

Odd Quartet
Odd Quartet specializes in music education videos. Two of the playlists in particular contain fun and informative videos: Music Theory Crash Course and Music History Crash Course.

Inside the Score
This YouTube channel consists of videos to deepen your appreciation of classical music, film music, and art music. There are videos on the genius of various composers and how to listen to classical music with topics like tonality, fugues, and sonata form as well as quick guides to Beethoven and Brahms symphonies. Movie music videos explore famous movie themes and how the composer created the music such as Star Wars: How John Williams Composes a Theme or West Side Story: How Music Creates Racial Tension.

Classics Explained
This channel features entertaining videos which explain the stories and creative processes behind many famous classical pieces. The videos are cartoons but are more appropriate for teens and adults, since many of the pieces have more adult themes, such as the video about Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, Freaky Experiment Shocks Paris.

Jus’ Classical
On the Jus’ Classical YouTube channel, you can investigate classical music through composer biographies where the Baroque composer, George Frideric Handel, interviews other great composers to bring history and music to life. You will also find instructional videos for playing tin whistle. Jus’ Classical has art videos too: you can meet Great Artists in biographical videos in which Rembrandt, the Dutch Master from the 1600s, interviews other artists and teaches drawing.

Inspiring Young Artists

Christian Li
Christian Li was born in Melbourne in 2007 and began playing violin at age five. In 2018, he became the youngest-ever winner of the Menuhin Competition, where he played and conducted a movement of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and so won the joint Junior 1st Prize in Geneva. Christian became the youngest artist to sign with Decca Classics in 2020 and recorded a debut album featuring Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

Lucas and Arthur Jussen
Brothers Lucas and Artur Jussen are a piano duo from the Netherlands. As children, they performed for the Dutch Queen Beatrix. Now they perform with well-known orchestras internationally.

Great Playlists of Classical Music

Halidon

Deutsche Grammophon
Deutsche Grammophon is a record label through which many talented performers distribute their recordings. On this YouTube channel, you can discover legendary recordings from past and present of a huge variety of classical music.

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