Virtual Choir
Singing Together online
In the digital age of web 2.0 people can easily communicate all over the world. So why not sing together via internet? This is exactly what a virtual choir makes possible.
How it works? People from different nations come together online and combine their love to music by singing together. The feature of the virtual choir is that individual and also totally unknown singers as well as the conductor are not located in one room, but perform a piece of music via internet. Through the international online-landscape millions of people can be reached and are called to join it.
The US-American composer and conductor Eric Whitacre brought many Virtual Choirs to life. With an appeal to his fans for being part of an international and brand new project, the innovative idea to connect people from the whole world through music and with the help of techniques started. For the performance videos and audio tracks have been assembled to one vocal score.
One of the first realized works was “Lux Aurumque”, which was sung by 185 voices from twelve nations and is accorded to classical choral singing without some technique. The specifically composed song “Glow” premiered with 1473 participants from all 50 states of America for a winter show at the Disneyland California. Other projects, including the „Virtual Choir 4: Fly to Paradise“, which was realized with 5905 singers, have a significantly higher application of technical tools.
Also the famous pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim called for a virtual “Beethoven-Chor” in 2012. “Beethoven für alle” (engl. “Beethoven for everyone”) was the project`s title and combined 2432 video entries with individual interpretations of Beethovens “Ode to Joy” from the 9th symphony. For the campaign he was awarded the Radio Award 2012 together with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.
For sure a virtual choir can`t offer the same experience like singing together at a concert hall, but surely offers another exciting experience to joint single frames from different points of view to one completed piece of music.
