US visa denial forces Australian musical comedy duo to postpone start of world tour

The world tour of popular Australian musical comedy duo TwoSet Violin has been thrown into question after one of the members’ US visa application was denied two months before their tour was to begin.

Brett Yang and Eddy Chen, TwoSet Violin’s founding members, were scheduled to perform shows in Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles in July. Both performers applied for an O-1B visa, which applies to individuals with an extraordinary ability in the arts. Chen’s visa application was quickly accepted. However, Yang learnt his application, which he says was “exactly the same” as Chen’s, was denied on May 15.

Before receiving the denial, Yang was asked for further evidence. However, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) later denied his application after deeming his additional evidence as unsatisfactory. Chen’s application, on the other hand, was approved immediately and he was not required to provide further evidence.

As a result, the performers have postponed their first five shows. The remaining US performances – set to include Chicago, Dallas and Boston in September – remain up in the air as their agency, KD Schmid, works through Yang’s second visa application. The USCIS said as a matter of practice, it generally does not discuss the details of individual immigration cases.

Yang says the rejection was particularly baffling given he has successfully applied for US visas in the past, including for TwoSet Violin’s previous two world tours (in 2017-18 and 2023). Notably, they travelled under different visas for their previous tours, not O-1B visas. But because of their growing profile and success, they are using an agency for this tour and applied for the visa for those with an extraordinary ability in the arts.

“It’s pretty stressful because there are multiple parties involved,” Yang says. “It hurts fans quite a lot – people buy tickets, fly to different cities, book accommodations … But we also had orchestras involved and our agency. I wish we could understand the reason [the application was denied] better because I just spent around $6000 on it.”

TwoSet Violin officially formed in 2014. Yang and Chen, both of whom worked at two of Australia’s leading orchestras at the time, began uploading YouTube videos of themselves playing the violin while cracking jokes. Their mission was simple: to make classical music more accessible and welcoming. This included showcasing their outstanding musical skills while hula-hooping or wearing Apple Vision Pro headsets, or while wearing wigs and impersonating some of history’s greatest classical musicians.

Today, their YouTube channel has over 4.3 million subscribers and their TikTok account has over 1.2 million followers. They were even named the “greatest string-based content creators of our time” by the London Symphony Orchestra.

The duo has now spent north of $20,000 on the visa application process, Yang says, including procuring advice from lawyers. However, they have also lost money on the tour itself, as they’ve had to postpone shows that included major production expenses such as playback operators, stage managers and costuming. All up, Yang says they’ve lost almost six figures.

But it’s ultimately not the money they’re concerned about, Chen says.

“We’re most sad that we can’t meet our fans,” Chen says. “We have many cities lined up, so we’ll still get to eventually tour Europe, Asia, Australia. But a big core of our fan-base is in the US, and for them, it might be, logistically, their only opportunity to meet us … The magic is being able to meet the people who have supported us through our whole journey face-to-face.”

Chen also feels for the orchestras supporting TwoSet Violin during the first leg of their tour, which include the San Francisco Symphony and Seattle Symphony. Some orchestras have written letters of support for the duo after further evidence was requested for Yang’s first visa application.

“But as disappointing as it is, we understand we currently can only focus on the things within our control and that which is out of our control we just have to learn to accept,” Chen says.

Yang agrees, and says they’re they’re hopeful his second visa application is successful.

“We’re still pending the second request for evidence response via a lawyer, who has shared that there have been more RFEs [request for evidence] handed out than ever before,” Yang says.

“But we’re quite hopeful. Worst case, if it doesn’t happen, it’s not the end of the world. At least it would offer clarity, and we could let the fans know. And we would do everything in our ability to make sure everyone gets a refund because that’s the least we could do. Then maybe in the future, we could move the concerts around.”

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