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How do you get to Carnegie Hall? (practice, practice, upload!)

December 15, 2008

Share this opportunity with your music departments and your student musicians!

The YouTube Symphony Orchestra opened for auditions on December 1st.  This is the first-ever such international, collaborative project.

The rules:
Once you download the sheet music and select your instrument from among the many listed on the pull-down menu, a personal conductor (Tan Dun) will guide you in your practice. The peice to be performed was also written by Tan, who won the 2000 Academy Award for his original score of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas of the San Francisco Symphony will direct the special Carnegie Hall performance. The deadline for video auditions is January 28th.

Now I know that realistically, most of our students will not make the final cut. 

But even if they don't get to Carnegie Hall, what this project creates, perhaps unintentionally, is a teaching tool--a library of creative models. 

It presents a new network for young musicians to explore the many ways a piece can be interpretted on their instrument of choice, by individuals, of all ages, from around the world. 

How cool is that?

Posted by Joyce Valenza Ph.D on December 15, 2008 | Comments (1)