Throughout music history, there have been countless virtuosic feats in the form of concertos (a soloist accompanied by an orchestra) composed for the orchestra’s most celebrated instruments such as the violin, cello and piano. However, a concerto does not - and should not - be limited to such standardised instruments.

Here is a fascinating selection of “unconventional” concertos from around the globe, featuring instruments that often play supporting roles in the orchestra or have rarely stepped foot in a concert hall altogether. Listen to the accompanying Spotify playlist or YouTube playlist here.

**Concerto for Water Percussion and Orchestra**

*Tan Dun (1998)*
YouTube / Spotify
This concerto for multiple instruments almost has to be seen as much as heard. The soloist, moving around throughout the performance, drips, splashes and trickles their way through the work, ‘playing’ the surface of water in amplified bowls, bowing the rods of the hand-held ‘waterphone’ and beating the ends of pipes immersed in water, among other things. For the composer Tan Dun, this theatrical work represents his own memories of water, from the natural sounds of rushing rivers to laundry day and childhood play.

Ricochet: Triple Concerto for Violin, Ping-Pong, Percussion with Orchestra

*Andy Akiho (2015)*
YouTube
Akiho has developed a reputation for writing music which often makes use of metallic sounds and incorporates elements of theatre. His *Ping-Pong Concerto* not only gives centre stage to his preferred instrumental medium - percussion - and one with strong Chinese and Western associations - the violin - but it also incorporates a ping pong tournament.

**Breath, Contained III: Concerto for Bubble Wrap with Orchestra**

*Tonia Ko (2023)*
YouTube
*Breath, Contained* are works created for increasingly larger forces with *Breath, Contained III* being a concerto scored for amplified bubble wrap with orchestra. It features imaginative orchestrations of a unique solo instrument, consisting of various sizes and shapes of air packaging. Ko has been developing these airy techniques since 2013, and this practice has run parallel to her composition work for more traditional mediums. An inexplicable reluctance to pop the bubbles reflects emotional qualities of the work: pent-up energy, unreleased emotions… breath, contained. All packaging material in performances so far has been scavenged or donated by the community.

**Concerto for Turntables and Orchestra**

*Gabriel Prokofiev (2006)*
YouTube / Spotify
Prokofiev wrote *Concerto for Turntables and Orchestra* in 2006 during a time when he was wrestling with his creative loyalties between classical and electronic music. According to Prokofiev, a promoter asked him to write a concerto for a DJ using turntables, with the aim of bringing classical music to new places and new people. At first he didn't like the idea - thinking it might turn out to sound terrible - but then he had a brainwave. What if the turntable player used the sounds created by the orchestra and manipulated them? It would be like a battle of sounds.

**Sheng Concerto** “Šu”

*Unsuk Chin (2009)*
YouTube / Spotify
Chin demonstrates her absolutely masterful control of timbre in this piece, particularly in the way instrumental colors blend in and out with each other. The piece begins small, with only the solo sheng in slow meditative rhythm. Over the course of the piece, the intensity of rhythm and orchestration gradually builds up. This culminates in a highly rhythmic climax section before returning to the calm of the introduction, now laid upon an incredibly eerie soundscape formed by percussion and strings.

**Concerto for Harmonica**

*Heitor Villa-Lobos (1955)*
YouTube / Spotify
Villa-Lobos’s Concerto, commissioned by John Sebastian, packs the charming opening movement with technical challenges including octaves, chords and double notes, while the second movement is a beautiful showcase for the instrument’s powers of expression and range. The vivacious final Allegro shines the spotlight on the player, courtesy of a fiendish cadenza.

**“Winter” Accordion Concerto with Strings**

*Aileen Sweeney (2021)*
YouTube
A wonderfully energetic work by Scottish composer Aileen Sweeney, formed of three movements each exploring a different winter festival once celebrated by the Ancient Celts: *Samhain, Yule* and *Imbolc.* Commissioned by The Glasgow Barons, this concerto went on to win the PRS prize for Large Scale New Works at The Scottish Awards for New Music 2023.

**UFO Concerto for Euphonium and Orchestra**

*Johan de Meij (2013)*
YouTube / Spotify
Available in a variety of arrangements, UFO Concerto is Johan De Meij’s first solo work for euphonium and it consists of five movements that are thematically related. The opening chord and the first theme are based on those used in ‘Extreme Makeover’ and ‘Planet Earth’ in 2005. David Childs premiered this work with The Cory Band, conducted by his father Robert Childs at the 2012 RNCM Festival of Brass in Manchester.

**Concerto for Didgeridoo**

*Sean O’Boyle & William Barton (2017)*
Spotify
The innovative combination of the didgeridoo – an ancient musical voice of Indigenous Australia – with the traditional European classical orchestra has become somewhat of an iconic medium thanks to collaboration between maestro William Barton and the composer, Sean O’Boyle. After its conception, O’Boyle’s concerto soon earned a permanent place in the Australian classical repertoire; ranking #32 in ABC Classic FM’s “The Classic 100 Concertos” and ranked #87 in the 2011 ABC Classic 100 “20th Century”.

**Concerto for Bass Tuba and Orchestra**

*Ralph Vaughan-Williams (1954)*
YouTube / Spotify
Vaughan Williams’s *Tuba Concerto* was first performed in June 1954 by Philip Catalinet and the London Symphony Orchestra, and is just one more work of originality and freshness that belied the 85-year-old composer’s advanced years. The concerto is dedicated to the entire orchestra on the occasion of their jubilee. In the words of the composer, ‘there are elaborate cadenzas in the outer movements which enclose a central movement of exceptional lyricism and tenderness’.

**Concerto Fantasy For Two Timpanists and Orchestra**

*Philip Glass (2000)*
YouTube / Spotify
Jonathan Haas approached Glass with an invitation to write a Timpani Concerto for him. Consisting of a three movement concerto with cadenza, it grew into a "double" concerto requiring two timpanists playing a total of nine timpani between them with half a dozen orchestras ready to perform it in its first year.

**"Dancefloor With Pulsing" for Theremin and Orchestra**

*Régis Campo (2018)*
YouTube
The French composer has managed to combine the subtlety of spectral music with lively rhythmic action and a great sense of humour. In *Dancefloor with Pulsing*, an earthly symphonic orchestra receives a visit from a Martian spaceship equipped with an extraordinary onboard dance floor. The extraterrestrial sounds are produced by the theremin, an instrument invented in 1919 by the Russian physicist Lev Theremin that has recently become popular again in the electronic music scene.

Matthew Elderton-Lewis a composer and conductor based in Essex/London. Having studied at Royal Holloway, University of London for a Master of Music as well as a Bachelor of Music Composition from London College of Music, University of West London, he has since gone on to work with Britten Sinfonia, PoppyHarp Composer Project and score award-winning short films such as, ‘The Suicide’ (2025). Not being from a musical background, Matthew is determined to fight the ‘classical music’ stigma, offering a hand of reassurance to audiences who would otherwise be hesitant to discover new music.

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