The Shortlist Is in for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011
Let the voting begin . . . YouTube™ invites the public to choose their favorite audition videos of musicians hoping to perform in the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011. Now, with 336 finalists selected from Finland to New Zealand, Austria to Vietnam, it’s time for YouTube users to cast their votes for those they think should play in the online collaborative orchestra’s March concerts at Australia’s famous Sydney Opera House.
During the next five days, the YouTube community is invited to go to youtube.com/symphony and help decide which of these talented musicians will be packing up their trombones, violas, timpani or other instruments to head for the Sydney Opera House on March 14-20, 2011 to perform in concerts that will have a global audience.
YouTube users, who can vote once per video, once a day until 23:59 EST on December 17, will help conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, the YouTube Symphony Orchestra’s artistic director, to cull the 300+ shortlist hopefuls down to a final list of 96 musicians who will play in the Sydney concerts. The YouTube community’s votes are also needed to help choose four solo improvisers. Mason Bates, composer-in-residence at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, wrote Mothership especially for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYyO0bFioZs&feature=related).
With the help and input of YouTube users, he will choose from 36 soloists,
including show-stopping performers on such instruments as
the guzheng (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-I4XVyCv-xA),
the musical saw (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sJ3eDqa-Q8)
and … the udderbot (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XEz-4TOoO8).
Musicians who are selected from this finalist group will be announced on YouTube on January 11, 2011, and will be invited to a week-long classical music summit of rehearsals, concerts, and master classes at Sydney Opera House in March 2011, culminating in a performance conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas.
Blown away by all the talent and determination manifested in the audition videos, YouTube congratulates all the musicians still in the running, as well as everyone who submitted an audition. More than 25 million people have now visited the YouTube Symphony Orchestra channel, which provides a platform for musicians of all ages to flourish, to share their creativity, and to broadcast themselves.
Countries Represented by Finalists
Argentina
Germany
Australia
Greece
Belgium
Hong Kong
Brazil
Hungary
Canada
India
Chile
Israel
China
Italy
Columbia
Japan
Costa Rica
Jordan
Czech Republic
Malaysia
Denmark
Mexico
Ecuador
Netherlands
Estonia
New Zealand
Finland
Peru
France
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Singapore
South Korea
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Turkey
United Kingdom
Ukraine
USA
Venezuela
Vietnam
For further information, contact:
[email protected]
Glenn Petry: 212-625-2038, [email protected]