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-YouTube Symphony Orchestra
The first YouTube Symphony Orchestra – selected by viewers of the website – will be made up of more than 90 musicians from some 30 countries. They will travel to New York to participate in a classical music summit in April, culminating in a concert at Carnegie Hall.
Since the launch of the initiative in December, the YouTube Symphony Orchestra’s channel received more than 13 million views worldwide. More than 3,000 videos were submitted to YouTube by musicians from Azerbaijan to Venezuela. Professional and amateur musicians of all ages and on all instruments posted videos of themselves playing in concert halls, campus corridors and sitting rooms in an attempt to get picked.
Two hundred finalists were whittled down to 90 winners by Michael Tilson Thomas, music director of the San Francisco Symphony and principal guest conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, and the YouTube community.
Mr Tilson Thomas, who will conduct the concert at Carnegie Hall, said: “It has been a remarkably exciting process reviewing the many contributions from around the world. It’s been a real window on the lives of music lovers everywhere who have auditioned in their dorms, practice rooms, on stages of neo-classical theaters, apartment house lobbies, on gorgeous Italian fiddles and old upright pianos. All of them have played with great heart and devotion.”
The orchestra will have 26 different instruments. The selected musicians, ranging from ages 17 to 55, will perform composer Tan Dun’s “Internet Symphony No. 1, Eroica” a piece specially arranged for the occasion.
The musicians come from: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and the United States.
From Times Online; excerpts, edited by Musicon
Cf. The YouTube Symphony’s Channel
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