Update: The Mysterious Return of Twoset Violin

Anya Wang '26

February 11, 2025

Update: The Mysterious Return of TwoSet Violin

By Anya Wang ‘26

On November 19th, 2024, my article about TwoSet Violin’s disappearance was published on RDA. Interestingly enough, exactly two weeks later—on December 3rd, 2024—TwoSet returned, making their first social media post since their cryptic message on October 14th, 2024 that TwoSet Violin would be no more [1, 2].

However, their return was just as mysterious, often leaving fans more frustrated than pleased. As a longtime fan, I felt it right to return to TwoSet and write an update to my previous article: instead of “The Mysterious End of TwoSet Violin,” this time, it’s “The Mysterious Return of TwoSet Violin.”

(My article titles are very creative, I know.)

But first, a brief recap of TwoSet and their disappearance. TwoSet Violin is a YouTube violin duo consisting of Taiwanese-Australian violinists Eddy Chen and Brett Yang. Both had been professional violinists in some of Australia’s largest orchestras, but decided to quit their professional careers in 2013 to launch their YouTube channel [3]. During their 11 years of content creation, the two built a fanbase and community around classical music, using wit, humor, and creativity to make classical music more accessible and fun to younger audiences [4].

But on October 14th, 2024, without any warning or explanation, TwoSet suddenly posted on Instagram that that post would be the “last piece of content we post as TwoSet Violin” [2].

Fans were doubly shocked and upset. What happened? Did this mean TwoSet was quitting forever, or were they simply rebranding? And why was TwoSet making no effort to explain their momentous decisions to their fanbase of 4 million YouTube subscribers?

Fans would have to wait a month and a half before any trace of an answer could be found to their questions. Indeed, on December 3rd, TwoSet finally broke the silence they had created since October 14th. Dedicated fans opened YouTube to find a new notification from TwoSet Violin: TwoSet had uploaded a new video. And it was titled “‘I’m Bach’—Official Teaser” [1].

“‘I’m Bach’” was clearly a wordplay on the famous baroque composer Johann S. Bach’s name and the phrase “I’m back”—but what exactly did this title mean? Was TwoSet returning, at long last? But to fans’ dismay, instead of answering their questions, the video instead raised even more questions. For starters, the video was only 31 seconds long, simply featuring Eddy walking through a cathedral dressed as Bach. It offered no explanation and only left a single date—Dec. 5, 9 AM ET—at the end of the video. Additionally, Brett did not appear at all in the video [1].

The comment section for the video soon filled with paragraph- or even essay-length responses, with fans expressing everything from relief and delight to pure outrage at their spontaneous, confusing return [1]. But the promised date—Dec. 5—came, and at the promised time, TwoSet uploaded another video— “‘I’m Bach’ Official M/V” to their YouTube channel [5].

Featuring Eddy playing as J.S. Bach, the video featured him rapping and singing—something TwoSet had seldom done—about Bach’s musical genius and his laments on the state of musical decline in the modern day. The video was certainly cool—it revolved around a dim sci-fi set, featured a cast of background actors, and had the editing and feel of a professional music video—but did nothing to address the elephant in the room [5]. To put it frankly, no LingLing Wannabee (what TwoSet’s fans call themselves) wanted to hear about Bach’s greatness—a quality they all knew very well, if they had followed TwoSet for long enough—until Brett and Eddy came out and explained their own musical careers.

But it seemed that no explanation was coming. TwoSet continued to upload new videos, again with no explanation whatsoever. On December 9th, TwoSet uploaded “Papa Wolfgang Style M/V,” emulating the breakout Kpop song “Gangnam Style” by PSY and featuring Brett playing as Moazrt, singing, very similarly, about the obsolete topic of Mozart’s greatness [6]. On December 12th, TwoSet uploaded “Liberation of the Soul M/V”—this time, featuring Eddy playing Beethoven and singing, again, about Beethoven’s greatness [7].

To any LingLing wannabee who still continued to follow TwoSet (for TwoSet was losing thousands of subscribers at this point) [8], without any explanations at their disposal, their best guess was that TwoSet had rebranded. TwoSet had uploaded all these new videos with the name “B2TSM” in their titles. “B2TSM” stood for Bach, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, and Mozart—some of the most famous and consequential classical composers of all time—and was a project the duo had actually started in 2022 [9, 10]. The project seemed to be about honoring and celebrating these 5 famous composers in the form of modern-era music videos. A cool project, for sure, but one that they had not touched since uploading their debut of the project in 2022. Fans were rightfully confused. Why had TwoSet returned to a project that fans thought they had forgotten? And if this project was actually this important to the two, why hadn’t they explained that to their fans?

Maybe the incessant, outraged Instagram and YouTube comments had finally gotten to them. Maybe the diving follower counts had finally worried them. Because on Dec. 13, TwoSet finally announced on Instagram that they would be holding a YouTube livestream Dec. 21, where they intended to “answer your questions and share some life updates” [11].

Finally—an acknowledgement that the community needed some answers. But the B2TSM project didn’t seem to be stopping. “Love Like That M/V” was released on Dec. 16, and revolved around Tchaikovsky’s failed romantic life, as he was secretly gay in 19th-century Russia [12, 13]. “My Testament M/V” displayed the creative repression Shostakovich suffered under the Stalinist regime and how he covertly rebelled against it through his music [14].

But at long last, Dec. 21, finally arrived. The two began their livestream timidly yet cheerfully, ordering boba as they waited for more fans to trickle in. They shared some jokes back and forth, asked the fans how they were doing, before finally addressing and acknowledging their mistakes:

“I’m sorry,” Eddy said, his face serious.

“Here’s an apology: I’m so sorry,” Brett stated as well [15].

The livestream lasted for 2 hours, the two answering any question that fans asked through the livestream chat, even the ones that were quite angry or critical of their conduct. Addressing their confused and hurt fans, they explained first and foremost: their return wasn’t exactly a rebranding. In fact, they weren’t returning at all [15].

“We’ve decided this year to kind of take a break from doing YouTube videos; it’s been something we’ve been doing for 11 years,” Eddy explained. The two felt that they had overexerted themselves, trying to find any and all ways to please the internet. They felt worn out, having already expressed everything they wanted to say in their decade-long creative careers [15].

“11 years is a good time,” Eddy added [15].

Regarding B2TSM, the two explained that they had been working on the project intensely for the past two months, even shooting “sixteen hour days” on some days. They explained that they had made 6 of these music videos in the end—at the time of the livestream, they had only uploaded 5 of them—and that they had wanted those M/Vs to be their final gift to their fans. Instead of uploading a contrived, generic “farewell” video as their goodbye to fans, they wanted to give them these M/Vs—their own creative works that they had given their blood, sweat, and tears for—as the finale to their YouTube channel. They felt that these videos encapsulated their mission and story in a much more authentic way. And they felt that the storyline and plot of the videos—especially the last one, which they had not uploaded yet at the time of the livestream— would eventually explain everything, even their decision to quit YouTube [15].

They did acknowledge, however, that uploading these videos over a two week interval and putting the weight of their explanation on the very last one was a mistake. “I guess [we] didn’t realize that in today’s [Internet culture] a two week thing is too long—people want explanations right after the first teaser,” Eddy reflected. “We wanted—in our head we pictured this six M/V arc, this six movement symphony that will eventually tell the story. But we were completely wrong with that…we’re sorry” [15].

And a large controversy they finally acknowledged: their old videos. When they had announced their departure on Oct. 14th, the two had simultaneously deleted all but 29 of the thousands of videos in their YouTube channel. Fans who had cherished those videos were deeply hurt and upset. Eddy, however, explained: “At the time, we were like, ‘I don’t think that there’s that many people watching our old videos anyway’—this is just based off what we saw on our views… you know, it’s kind of like when you curate your own Instagram—we just wanted to leave the ones we’re most proud of” [15].

They did confirm, however, that they had realized their decision was wrong and were going to restore their old videos. As of my writing this, all the old videos have indeed returned to their YouTube page [4]. Their Instagram page, where they had also deleted much of their content, has been restored as well [16].

The livestream ended as one of the only moments TwoSet had been candid to their community in a two month long period of misunderstandings and miscommunications. But no matter what fans felt of the ordeal, whether they believed TwoSet deserves our sympathy or whether their apology was not enough to compensate for their harms, the livestream, having answered everything, ended the controversy. It put an awkward bow on a beloved content creator’s attempt at ending their social media careers without harming their devoted fans.

Personally, I think one of the comments that TwoSet addressed in their livestream encapsulated the whole ordeal the best: “You had a right to quit but you could have explained to your community why and it would have been all right” [15]. Without a genuine explanation, their spontaneous, unpredictable decisions came off as selfish and wholly disregarding of their fan’s feelings.

But I also understand how it could have been an honest mistake. “I remember someone saying, like, you guys should hire a better PR team,” Eddy had mentioned in the livestream. “But like bro, we do everything ourselves—we have no idea what we’re doing,” Eddy joked [15].

I think I also empathize with their decision to quit, especially their feelings of overexertion and exhaustion and feeling like they had reacted to everything they could have. Classical music differs from other genres in the sense that modern day classical musicians don’t really create—we just perform old compositions. There’s this sense of elitism and perfection in the community, where the best musicians are known for their perfection in technique and performance, not their creativity.

I think it makes sense, then, as both YouTubers and classical musicians, where the number one goal of both endeavors is to “please the masses,” that TwoSet would feel worn out, that they would want to try to create their own music, as B2TSM allowed them to.

I ended my last article about TwoSet saying that I would wish TwoSet the best in their future endeavors. I think I feel the same at the end of this article. A fan had even asked TwoSet in their livestream what they would do in the future since they had quit YouTube, to which Eddy had replied, “Oh man, I don’t know…it’s kind of scary…[we] don’t know what to expect…” [15].

But wherever they go, I think they’ve made it clear that their mission—to make classical music more accessible to all—and their community of TwoSetters will stay with them. On Dec. 22, a day after their livestream, their last M/V dropped. It was titled “Forever Symphony,” and in the pre-chorus, Brett sings, in TwoSet’s final YouTube video, to their fans, their community of 11 years:

“So take care of this for me,

And carry on our legacy,

In the music we stay united” [17].

Sources:

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qYHoCHKONM

[2] https://www.instagram.com/p/DBG9LuJS9PJ/?img_index=1

[3] https://twosetviolin.com/about

[4] https://www.youtube.com/@twosetviolin

[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jExn6TXxenM

[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnwoNdq3hGY

[7] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1O7Qag3iDo

[8] https://socialblade.com/youtube/user/twosetviolin