Virtual Choir 2.0 by Eric Whitacre - Music, Art, and Social Media Bringing the World Together
Eric Whitacre's new work, Virtual Choir 2.0, made its debut today, featuring 2,052 singers from 58 countries around the world. Each singer made a YouTube video, singing solo to a webcam, and the individual pieces were assembled into the largest ever Internet choir. It's a fantastic work of music, art and social networking that brings the world a little closer together. Here's what happened:
- Eric Whitacre delivers a TED talk about his upcoming Virtual Choir 2.0 project.
- The day before the world premiere, NPR covers the story on All Things Considered.
- Early on launch day...
Tonight's Virtual Choir twitter hashtag is #virtualchoir. Let's see if we can make it trend globally!- The world premiere was live streamed from the Paley Center in New York City. Lots of anticipation in advance...
@paleycenter 4 taxis, 1 train, 1 transatlantic flight. Worth it, john candy would have been impressed #virtualchoir
Interesting crowd @paleycenter tonight for the Whitacre premiere. You can tell when musicians are in the house. #paleyliveny #virtualchoir
@rehabstudios eager for the #virtualchoir to start. How many hours did it take to edit?
@betsysimons It's a labour of love more than anything else... we stopped counting at one point.
Holy cow! its interesting to watch as the numbers rise on the live stream for #virtualchoir - #paleycenter live on bit.ly/aY3AiN- Whitacre showed a graph of video submissions over time, with steady submissions until the deadline neared, then a sharp spike at the last minute. His comments on procrastination:
Singers are notorious procrastinators - with sopranos procrastinating the most Eric Whitacre’ bit.ly/ifqMhI #virtualchoir- After the live event, the video was posted on YouTube.
In case you missed the streamed event, now on YouTube, video of "Sleep" - 2052 voice #virtualchoir. Stunning. youtu.be/6WhWDCw3Mng- Whitacre's website includes the video, some history about the project, and a very cool mashup with Google Earth that shows where in the world all the singers were located, along with a link to their video.
The Virtual Choir – Eric WhitacreFor anyone who wants to believe in the humanizing possibilities of a connected world, here is your anthem.- In September last year, Eric invited his online fans to participate in an ambitious attempt to create the world's largest virtual choir. Featuring 2052 performances from singers in 58 countries, the Virtual Choir 2.0 - singing Whitacre's "Sleep" - is the largest assembled online in history, and far surpasses Whitacre's original goal of 900 voices. Upon previewing the video at TED 2011 ...- Background informationThe Virtual Choir 1.0 video has 2 million views on YouTube.
- This is the original video from Britlin Losee that inspired Whitacre to create a virtual choir.
