Ben Lee becomes fastest violin player in history
On Monday 13th December 2-time world record holder, rock violinist Ben Lee of acclaimed electric violin duo FUSE, broke the Guinness World Record for the Fastest Violin Player by playing at over 14 notes per second.
Judged by Guinness World Record officials and musical experts Ben Lee set the new record with a performance of ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, playing on the world’s most expensive electric violin. Ben played the piece in an astonishing 58.515 seconds stripping nearly 5 seconds off the previous record.
The preceding record stood at 1 minute 3.356 seconds, set in early November 2010 taking only 0.7 seconds off the previous best time.
Consensus in the violin fraternity suggested it would not be conceivable to play the set piece of music faster than 1 minute 3 seconds – further, attempting to break the coveted “magic minute” was considered a feat too far. Reports have speculated the scale of such a feat would be comparable to Bannister’s sub 4-minute mile.
Ben Lee can now claim to have the fastest fingers in the world and live up to his reputation as the Usain Bolt of the violin world.
‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ is used to judge the Guinness World Record for the fastest violin player, as the piece is extremely fast and technically demanding.
Ben performed on one of a pair of FUSE’s exclusive Swarovski Crystal Bridge violins. Following in the footsteps of international superstars Madonna, Michael Jackson and Kylie Minogue, FUSE’s Linzi Stoppard and Ben Lee joined forces with Swarovski to embellish each of their bespoke Bridge instruments with an incredible 50,000 crystals each, every one hand-applied, creating the world’s most expensive electric violins.
Each violin is worth over one million pounds and was launched in-store at Harrods.
Ben Lee is a one half of electric violin rock duo, FUSE. Together with band mate, Linzi Stoppard, Ben has performed live on TV to an audience of over 100 million with appearances at GQ Men of the Year Awards, Glastonbury and London Fashion Week. The duo’s debut album, ‘FUSE’ is available now on Edel Records / Universal Music. FUSE bridges the gap between classical and pop music and the album features 14 anthems including ‘Beat It’ by Michael Jackson and Coldplay’s ‘Fix You’.
Ben Lee commented, “Records are there to be broken, and I know I can take it even faster. The idea for this record challenge came from Linzi. Having watched me attack the Van Halen and Jimmy Page solos that we have interpreted on our album, she had the faith! I was in a serious traffic accident earlier in the year, doctors told me I had to consider that my violin days could be over. Linzi thought a defined goal would help me battle through the rehab – she was right”
“There are plenty of guitar heroes in the world, maybe it’s time for a violin hero!”
In the coming weeks Ben Lee and FUSE already have plans to push the boundaries even further with another Guinness World Record attempt exhibition in Asia. Watch this space for the fastest violin player in history’s next instalment.
