Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choirs
Eric Whitacre is known for his breathtaking compositions of choral work. He has published more than four-dozen pieces and recorded several albums.
More recently, he’s become known as the guy who puts together virtual choirs. What is a virtual choir, you ask. Well, his one first involved inviting 185 voices from a dozen countries to sing and record their various parts in their living rooms, door rooms, or wherever, and send them to him. Whitacre then combined all of these recordings into a single “virtual choir.” The finished piece became an instant You-Tube sensation in 2010. A year later, he gathered more than 2000 voices from 85 countries for a similar effort and debuted that work at an earlier TED conference. Both demonstrate the power of the internet, when used creatively, to connect people from around the world in collaborative and artistic endeavors that would have been unthinkable even a decade ago.
So what do you do for a follow-up? Well, at this year’s TED conference, Whitacre brought together a live choir from several area colleges to perform another piece he had written and then Skyped in 32 more singers from around the world to join them in a live/virtual performance. I’ll put all three videos below in the order of when they were recorded. All are very, very cool. Enjoy!
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I find it so amazing how music can speak to ones soul. So many voices. It makes me think of the heavenly multitude singing praises to our God. Thank you for sharing with us.
Think how music is a universal language, bridging differences of race, religion and politics! What an extraordinarily beautiful sound and concept! Thank you!
He ended up marrying a beautiful soprano from Israel, that he met at Juliard. The spirit works in amazing ways 😉
THAT was SO COOL! I am riding my stationary bike and was so taken by the music that the time has flown by! Thanks for sharing!