Music connects us

Music connects us even if we are not all in the same room. In this amazing video, we see composer/conductor Eric Whitacre conduct a virtual choir in his awe-inspiring piece “Lux Arumque.” Ragazzi men and boys sang this piece several years ago. Eric Whitacre is a young composer whose music is a favorite of choral conductors around the world. For this project, he posted a video in which he conducted in silence and he then offered the sheet music as a free download to anyone willing to join in. As singers began posting their individual tracks, he called for ‘auditions’ for the soprano solo. Here is Eric Whitacre’s own description of the event:

“When I saw the finished video for the first time I actually teared up. The intimacy of all the faces, the sound of the singing, the obvious poetic symbolism about our shared humanity and our need to connect; all of it completely overwhelmed me. And it must be said that a lot of the credit for its beauty should go to Scottie Haines who spent untold hours editing and polishing the video. (BTW, Scottie and I have only met once in the ‘real world’, unlike 99% of the Virtual Choir, whom I’ve never ‘met’)…. Lastly, I’m hoping that this is just the beginning. My ultimate goal is to write an original piece for the Virtual Choir and have it receive it’s world premiere in cyber-space, hundreds (maybe thousands) of people singing alone, together.”

To see the “concert”, go to this Youtube link (you can select it and copy it and put it into your browser):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7o7BrlbaDs