VIDEO: Broadway Musicians Mark One Year of the Pandemic with a Duet 'Passacaglia'

Broadway musicians Danielle Giulini and Drew Griffin have paired up to perform the Handel/Halvorsen violin and viola duet, "Passacaglia."

The two met on the Broadway national tour of Les Misérables where they quickly became great friends and developed a solid musical connection. They wanted to play Passacaglia together for quite some time. It's a very famous, exciting piece for both of their instruments, but Drew left the tour before they had a chance to perform it and Covid completely prohibited any opportunities thereafter.

While in quarantine, they reconnected over the idea of creating a video and distance recording, since many live entertainment artists were forced to adapt to online platforms with venues shut down. They had never seen a professional quality music video of that piece - as it's a rarity for classical music in general - so they came up with a storyline that came naturally to them; a culmination of how drastically lives had shifted in 2020 and all of the terrible trauma people endured throughout the past year.

As they drafted a storyboard, they unveiled the connections between the music and 2020's real life experiences. A "Passacaglia" is a theme with variations based on a steady bass line or chord progression, so it was remarkable how this piece reflected the feeling that everyone's lives were gradually spinning further and further out of control, held together by only glimmers of how they once were. But, that no matter what, in spite of the chaos, the music had to keep going.

Drew Griffin is currently the viola chair for the Broadway musical Ain't Too Proud, Andrew Griffin is an award-winning violist, composer, and orchestrator. He has performed in such diverse settings as Saturday Night Live, Radio City Music Hall, and in the viola section of the Houston Symphony Orchestra. Andrew was also a semifinalist at the 2012 Washington International Competition for Strings.

As an active copyist and editor, his credits include: Kidding (Showtime); Ride the Cyclone (Off-Broadway); Planet Earth 2 (BBC); Lempicka (Williamstown Theater); Witness Uganda/Invisible Thread (Off-Broadway) and many more. His arrangements and orchestrations have also been performed by notable groups such as the Sphinx Virtuosi, the Queens College orchestra, and Alkali.

Andrew received his bachelor's degree with honors from Carnegie Mellon University under Toby Appel, and a master's degree from Rice University under Ivo-jan Van Der Werff.

Violinist, Danielle Giulini, began playing the violin at the age of six (6) in Zürich, Switzerland. Throughout her studies there she won multiple, distinctive awards at competitions such as the Swiss National Solo Youth Competition and the International Chamber Music Competition in Germany.

At the age of 19, Danielle moved to the United States to continue her musical career. While completing her Master's Degree with distinction from DePaul University, she became a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, which was artistically guided by the legendary Yo-Yo Ma. Her classical path took a turn when she moved to NY and became the concertmaster for the musical Annie. Prior to the Covid pandemic, Danielle held the concertmaster chair at Les Misérables for over two years.