Youtube Symphony Orchestra

"How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" asked Michael Tilson Thomas. It's an older gag but the conductor had a fresh answer: "Upload, upload, upload." After months of virtual auditions via webcams across the world, the YouTube Symphony Orchestra had its first performance at Carnegie Hall in New York. Michael Tilson Thomas was the maestro of proceedings, curating a global tour of classical music through the ages, from Gabrieli and Bach to Dvorak, Brahms, Villa-Lobos and Lou Harrison. Months of interactive computer chat about the world’s first collaborative online orchestra, after 96 winning players were selected from among the more than 3,000 musicians who submitted audition videos and were brought to New York for a group summit and Carnegie Hall concert, how did the YouTube Symphony Orchestra finally play? …Quite wonderfully from a musically talent lacking point of view. This diverse concert rehearsed nearly 15 different symphonies. We were required to watch only the first hour but, I couldn’t resist and looked up the entire 3 hour show.
With the chosen musicians coming from more than 30 different countries and vastly different backgrounds, the program needed to touch as many eras and styles as possible. So there was everything from a Renaissance for brass by Gabrieli to a new, hard-driving piece for orchestra and
It may have been frustrating for many of the musicians as well. In the Tchaikovsky, especially, Mr. Thomas pushed them to the hilt, with winded tempos and full-throttled terraced dynamics. Though a little rough and ready, the performance had drive, color and