Who would have thought that posting videos on Youtube could land you up at Carnegie Hall!! In what is going to be the culmination of a pathbreaking initiative in the world of music, 90 odd musicians hailing from over 30 different countries will debut in New York’s Carnegie Hall at 7.30 on April 15, playing for the Youtube Symphony Orchestra. The concert will be conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas of the San Francisco Symphony.
It all began on December 1, 2008 when Youtube called for musicians from all across the world to submit a video of themselves playing the Internet Symphony No. 1 “Eroica”, composed specially for the event by Tan Dun, the Oscar-winning composer of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. More than 3000 entries were received until the deadline of January 28, which were then evaluated by members of London Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic and New York Philharmonic Orchestra till February 13. 200 finalists were chosen by the judges, whose videos were then posted on Youtube for viewers to vote their choice. The final list was announced on March 2. And these are the people who would be having their dream debut at the Carnegie Hall later today. The concert would include works by Bach, Mozart, Brahms, Villa Lobos and John Cage as well as Tan Dun’s composition. Below is the global mashup video from Youtube, which is a compilation of the 3000+ submissions. For individual submission videos, visit http://www.youtube.com/symphony