The Great Kat has released a new music video and single, “Tchaikovsky’s Swan Theme Swan Lake”, a shred metal version of music from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ballet “Swan Lake”. The single is out on iTunes and Spotify, and the video is on YouTube.
Kat plays guitar on the track, working through Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Theme” and “Dance Of The Little Swans” from the ballet (Op. 20), with piano accompaniment. The announcement describes the arrangement as a shredfest and calls Kat the Hot Shred Swan.
A pas de deux while shredding
The video casts Kat as the Swan. She performs ballet moves, including a pas de deux and a pirouette, while playing guitar on the lake. The announcement says she shows her ballet side in the clip.
Tchaikovsky composed “Swan Lake” in 1875 and 1876. Its story follows Princess Odette, turned into a swan by the sorcerer Baron von Rothbart, and Prince Siegfried, whose love is the only thing that can free her. The ballet is one of the composer’s most popular works and one of the best known classical pieces, used in films, television and commercials.
Kat, from Juilliard to hyperspeed
Kat is the vocalist, guitarist and violinist of The Great Kat, the New York City speed and thrash metal band she has led since 1986. She is a classically trained violinist and a Juilliard graduate who toured playing conventional classical music before moving to metal. Guitar One Magazine named her among the Top 10 Fastest Shredders Of All Time. Her releases include “Beethoven on Speed” (1990), “Guitar Goddess” (1997) and “Ludwig Van Shred” (2022).
The new single follows “Beethoven’s 666th Cheerful Countryside Pastoral”, the video and single she released earlier this month, in which she played both guitar and violin on a speed metal version of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, the Pastoral, moving through its thunderstorm section. Both releases continue her run of classical pieces reworked for guitar, after singles this year including “The Flying Trapeze”, “Strauss’ Radetzky March” and “Vivaldi’s Mandolin Guitar”.
The Great Kat’s line-up also lists Jeff Ingegno on bass and Lionel Cordew on drums. The band’s label is TPR Music.
