Bach’s music has been recorded on synthesizer, launched into outer space, and inspired 300 years of Western classical music. Now, it’s on OnlyFans.
On May 13, the Berlin-based violist, composer, and arranger Shasta Ellenbogen premiered the first of a new series of solo viola performances on OnlyFans. Performing naked in her living room, Ellenbogen filmed one-shot videos of herself playing Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1, arranged for viola, and posted the first on the account @shastaelbow, for the 377.5 million users on the creator-centered adult entertainment platform.
Ellenbogen is something of an expert in the art of nude classical playing: She is a member of the Naked String Quartet, in residence at Berlin’s fetish nightclub KitKatClub. Past season highlights include audience members spanking each other to a Haydn quartet and an uncharacteristically respectful interview and blog post by Norman Lebrecht.
VAN contributors (and OnlyFans virgins) Julia Conrad and Hannah Edgar watched Ellenbogen play the Prélude of Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 in G major, arranged for viola, separately, so as not to intrude on each other’s experience. Then, they met up at Chicago’s artist-owned bar Clara—named, indeed, for the virtuoso pianist and composer Clara Wieck Schumann—to discuss the performance over frothy cocktails.
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