There’s a fellow out there by the name of Pharrell Williams, and if he seems like just a hip-hop artist to you, or just a guy who likes to get into a bunch of popular art forms, you’ve got one or two of the right ideas – next find yourself in a video of a full orchestra playing a piece called “i am Other” commissioned by him for his next CD. There’s something very attractive about how Pharrell goes about moving through life, starting a handful of year ago when he first started getting powerful in the hearts and minds of young people through his music showing up on the internet and the music television.

Also Pharrell’s been a producer, artist creating odd items such as a chair with human feet molded in for chair feet, and has worked with Takashi Murakami to create artwork so expensive it’d make your eyeballs bleed. What he’s doing now isn’t so much a solid item as it is a teaser for the future of his musical endeavors, always exciting since he’s good at that sort of thing, and all. This orchestra, the HMI Orchestra that is, will be coming your way again soon hopefully by the end of 2012.

The first time Pharrell mentioned this piece seems to be an Esquire interview in which he said the following after being asked “How important is fashion to you as far as it relates to your creativity — to your everyday life?” After noting how many “industry machines [are] locking up,” he’s been “fixing things” by bringing on the heat:

“There’s a storm coming. You’re gonna see me working in other musical mediums, too. Hip-hop? Yes. R&B? Yes. Pop? Yes. But watch. I just did a classical piece. It’s gonna be cool.” – Pharrell

Then here’s where it gets weird. The original story written up about this situation appears to be the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, whose story was titled “Pharrell Williams Records with Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra.” This post is now down, but a cached version of it remains thanks to Google. The text from this post can be found here in its entirety for all of you to know and love:

January 13, 2012 — Coral Gables, FL — The University of Miami Frost School of Music announces that multi-Grammy Award winning music producer, singer, rapper and composer Pharrell Williams was at UM Gusman Concert Hall this fall to record a new work for orchestra entitled “i am Other” with the Frost School’s Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra.

Williams hired the all-student orchestra for the session upon recommendation of producer Quincy Jones (honorary D.M.A. ’99). A video clip is provided below.

Williams composed the mixed-genre orchestral work—which features soft and ethereal atmospheres contrasted with fortissimo brass themes and driving rhythms—to explore a different side of his musical creativity, and to encourage his hip-hop fan base to expand their musical horizons. Shelly Berg orchestrated and conducted the work, and Director of Recording Services Paul Griffith (B.M. ’83) was the recording engineer. Pharrell Williams is best known for his work with Justin Timberlake, Madonna, Shakira, Jay-Z, Ludacris, and Snoop Dogg.

The Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra at the Frost School of Music is comprised primarily of graduate student “fellows” who are focused on developing cross-genre performance and entrepreneurial skills that will help prepare them for today’s professional world.

[via WavTelevision]