In 1998, a group of friends was preparing soup when a playful thought crossed their minds: Could they turn their vegetables into musical instruments?
What began as a joke soon became a reality. Since they were already scheduled to perform at an upcoming festival, they decided to test their whimsical idea. That’s when the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra was born.
Now, 25 years later, the orchestra has performed over 340 concerts using fresh vegetables like carrots, pumpkins, leeks, parsnips, radishes, and more. They’ve even set a world record for the most concerts by a vegetable orchestra—a title that is likely to remain theirs for a long time. According to Guinness World Records, the group holds the title as the “uncontested” record holders in this category.
Although the Vegetable Orchestra is based in Vienna, Austria, it has performed worldwide, gracing prestigious venues such as the Royal Festival Hall in London and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
The orchestra’s music spans various genres, from free jazz to experimental electronic. But all of their performances fall under the category of “Gemüsik,” a fusion of the German words for “vegetable” and “music,” as reported by Gastro Obscura’s Kaja Seruga last year.
“There are no musical boundaries for the Vegetable Orchestra,” states the group’s website. “The ensemble’s musical scope continues to expand, with newly developed vegetable instruments and their unique sounds often influencing the direction of the music.”
Since fresh vegetables only stay viable for a few hours after being cut, the musicians must craft new instruments for every performance. They visit local markets to find produce that looks and sounds interesting, then use drills, knives, and other kitchen tools to create flutes, marimbas, clarinets, violins, and more.
Each musician builds between eight and 25 instruments for each show, as BBC News’ Eliot Stein reported in 2019. Some instruments are made by combining different vegetables, such as the saxophone-like “cucumberphone” crafted from a carrot, cucumber, and bell pepper. To amplify the veggie sounds, the group uses special microphones.
“Some members prefer to create melodic instruments based on classical instruments, like the carrot flute or pumpkin drum,” said Matthias Meinharter, a founding member of the orchestra, in an interview with Gastro Obscura. “Others, like myself, are purists who want to highlight the distinct sounds of the vegetables, even when something sounds unconventional.”
The leftover vegetable scraps from making the instruments are cooked into soup, and at the end of each concert, the band serves the soup to the audience.
Their unique improvisational performances have inspired other vegetable orchestras around the globe, such as the London Vegetable Orchestra and the Long Island Vegetable Orchestra. The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra has also released four albums, with their latest, The Green Album, coming out in 2018.
“Many people think we’re just doing cabaret or offering a funny performance,” said orchestra member Susanna Gartmayer in a BBC News interview. “But they’re often surprised to discover the vast sonic potential in vegetables and that we aim to create genuinely interesting music.”
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