How These Four Dads From Utah Quit Their Day Jobs to Make Millions on YouTube

Perched high atop the Great Wall of China, decked out in black-and-white Karate uniforms, two middle-aged dads from Utah — one on piano, one on cello — are jamming out to a musical mashup of Chopin and a cut from the Kung Fu Pandasoundtrack.

Banging their instruments blissfully as an ethereal fog descends around them, theperformance, which is part hokey, part magical, has been viewed on YouTube more than 10 million times.

And it’s just one of many stunning stagings to be found on the channel of YouTube supergroup The Piano Guys — four Mormon dads from Utah who quit their day jobs three years ago in pursuit of an online career that has already netted them millions.

The group, which consists of a pianist, cellist, videographer and music producer, initially rose to fame for catchy covers filmed amidst eye-popping scenery: underneath the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil, for instance, or parked beside a few Batmobiles.

But on an icy evening earlier this month in midtown Manhattan, the group was set to debut in one of the unlikeliest venues of all: onstage at Carnegie Hall.