YouTube Symphony Orchestra to Perform at Carnegie Hall

by Jarrett Martineau | April 15, 2009 at 10:02 am

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Several months ago, YouTube launched a creatively collaborative, music-making experiment and competition that called on the site's users to upload videos of themselves performing a piece of music by renowned Chinese composer Tan Dun.

The resulting uploads were viewed and voted on by fans and YouTube assembled the 90 winners into the first-ever YouTube Symphony Orchestra.

The 'world premiere' of the meta-mashup YTSO performance is now viewable online, however, this user-generated orchestra's real-life musicians will also have the unique opportunity to perform live at Carnegie Hall in New York City on April 15th.

Under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas, the YouTube Symphony Orchestra will perform alongside a group of well-known musical mentors and featured soloists.

Last December, the company unveiled the YouTube Symphony Orchestra project, inviting classical musicians to upload videos of themselves playing an audition piece that would be voted on by viewers. YouTube says the clips of more than 3,000 aspiring musicians unspooled more than 15 million times.

The 90 musicians who made the YTSO cut will debut tonight at Carnegie Hall. Since Monday morning they have been rehearsing intensely under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas, the music director of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, with mentoring assistance from numerous luminaries who will also perform as featured soloists, including violinist Gil Shaham, pianist Yuja Wang, cellist Joshua Roman and the Canadian opera singer Measha Brueggergosman.

More than 37 countries and territories are represented in the YTSO.

Although the live performance of the YTSO will itself be a mashup of sorts, their online 'global mashup' arrives well after Thru-You — another similarly-themed, mashup series of YouTube clips, remixed by musician Kutiman— stormed the internet earlier this year.

For our money, Thru-You is the more innovative experiment, but it's great to see YouTube headed in a some exciting collaborative new directions.