Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir

I first heard about Eric Whitacre my senior year of high school.  His piece 'Sleep' was one of the audition songs for the region/area choir.  I made the audition and was able to sing this incredible piece of music with that choir.  Singing my part alone for the auditions was interesting - I couldn't quite get a feel for it, even when I played the other parts on the piano.  It wasn't until we started rehearsing with the entire choir that I realized there was something special about the music.  I had never heard chords and dissonances put together like that before - it was beautifully hypnotizing.  Our performance of the song was one of the few times in my life that I've witnessed an ture, legitimate standing ovation.  As soon as the conductor's hands went down, the audience shot up from their seats clapping.  And it wasn't even our last song.


My next encounter with Whitacre's music was my freshman year at Brigham Young University.  I learned that the top choral group on campus had produced a CD with all of his a cappella works from 1991-2001, and bought a copy immediately.  As I listened, I fell deeper in love with his music.  Over time I became more familiar with his other works, including pieces for bands and orchestras as well as choirs.


Last year I was delighted to discover a project of his, something he called the 'Virtual Choir'.  I'll let him explain it:

I was completely amazed by his first video - a virtual choir made up of 285 members from 12 countries singing 'Lux Aurumque' (lyrics here).  Watch it:

Today was the premiere of 'Virtual Choir 2.0', this time made up of 2000+ singers from 58 countries.  It's received significant attention recently:

• Eric Whitacre speaks at TED
• Virtual Choir featured on CNN
• Virtual Choir featured on NPR

You can now watch the new choir singing 'Sleep' (lyrics here), the one I sang my senior year of high school (and probably my favorite song of his).  It's an incredible experience - for me, the climax of the song was literally jaw-dropping and breathtaking.  But it's not just the music that's beautiful - the concept behind this choir is meaningful and important.  Thousands of people from all over the world come together to produce something amazing.  They put aside racial, ethnic, political, religious, and social barriers to unite and create harmony.  It conveys a message of peace and tolerance - that everyone on this planet is a part of something bigger.  Let it change you; let it make you a better person.  Here it is:

When I was a member of the BYU Men's Chorus, we had an unofficial motto to "change the world" with our music.  That's exactly what Eric Whitacre is doing.  Music can be used to spread harmony (literal and metaphorical) throughout the world.  Here's an excerpt from Joseph Eger's book 'Einstein's Violin' that conveys this message:


Before I became a conductor, I played solo first French horn in the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Israel Philharmonic.  In the first two of these prestigious orchestras, the solo first flutist and solo first oboist, who customarily sit side by side in the center of the orchestra, just did not get along.  To be more accurate, they hated each other.


For more than twenty-five years, these superb artists on flute and oboe, which instruments have key roles in all symphony orchestras, did not speak to each other!  So what could they do?  Let us imagine diabolical schemes they might concoct to vent their mutual dislike.  How about one sabotaging the other by playing wrong notes?  Or out of tune?  Or not together?  This would hardly be a solution, for they would succeed only in sabotaging themselves.  So for all those years they managed to play together.  Magnificently!  After all, these four artists were also first-class professionals.


The moral is obvious:  regardless of differences among people, enlightened self-interest can unite by providing a common goal, in these cases keeping their jobs and, above all, making splendid music.  At least that is what Beethoven said in his Ninth Symphony, setting Friedrich Schiller's "Ode to Joy," with its line "Alle Menschen werden Bruder" ("All humankind shall be as brothers") - Beethoven musically emphasized the "shall."