Brooklyn Rundfunk Orkestrata Retools 'The Sound of Music'

Peter Kiesewalter of the Brooklyn Rundfunk Orkestrata knows that re-imaginging the songs of 'The Sound of Music' as the band's debut recording, 'The Hills Are Alive,' may be a bit weird, but he has his reasonings.

"I know it's an absurd project to unleash as your debut recording, but in another way, I think it's kind of perfect," he tells PopEater. "I think it also shows what this group is all about, which is playing a broad and wide array of genres with a broad array of guest artists. That's going to be the model we continue from here on."

Kiesewalter, founder of the Orkestratra, explains how the project came to be. "It was an accident," he says. "I thought for [our] first show ... let's do a holiday show, but let's not do what everyone does for a holiday show which is play holiday music or some variation there of with 'Jingle Bells' and Santa hats. I said, 'Why don't we play all the songs from 'The Sound of Music'?'"

Despite some potential legal issues -- the musical falls under a different copyright category than other recordings -- Kiesewalter got the approval from the Rodgers & Hammerstein estate and made a record that sounds very different from the music you loved as a child.

"The story of the Von Trapp family is quintessentially an American story of immigration of people fleeing some sort of oppression, coming to the new world and starting a new life," Kiesewalter opines. "I thought the songs would benefit from a retelling using indigenous American music forms."

Taking cues from jazz, country, rock, bebop and others, the BRO created an entirely new way to enjoy the soundtrack. In one instance, they mashed up 'Do Re Mi' with the Jackson 5's 'ABC,' a pairing that couldn't be more perfect. "I'm not the biggest fan of mashups," Kiesewalter adds, "but that just hit me like a brick. I could not resist doing that."

But don't mistake Kiesewalter's work as a criticism of theatrical music. "I have maximum respect for these guys as composers and lyricists."

Will the Orkestrata do something like this again? "No, I can't. I don't want to get pigeonholed as the band that does kooky versions of musicals. That said, this band will do stuff with well-known repertoire."