NEW YORK, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Internet technology is not only changing the way people consume and promote music, but also allowing for the creation of music in new and exciting ways, Grammy-winning U.S. composer and conductor Eric Whitacre has said.
"Internet technology is changing the way we find collaborators, first of all," said Whitacre, who was recently appointed Artist in Residence with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, in a written interview with Xinhua.
"You hear of people all the time now making music across countries, across continents, never meeting in person, sending each other files, building music that way," said Whitacre.
"Also now, in many cases, technology has gotten to the point where the speed of the internet is fast enough so that people can play together in real time. You see this as well in the film industry," he said.
For example, Whitacre said, there are several music studios in Los Angeles that are connected directly to orchestras in the Czech Republic.
"You walk in, in Los Angeles, and it feels like you're in a recording booth there, but there on an HD screen is the session being run in the Czech Republic in real time. Pretty amazing," he said.
A graduate of the prestigious Juilliard School of Music in New York City, Whitacre is best known for his ground-breaking Virtual Choirs, which, by using digital technology and the power of YouTube, have united singers from over 101 countries in performance through user-generated videos.
Whitacre's first Virtual Choir, "Lux Aurumque" was launched in 2010. The online project, inspired by a young singer's video upload, was created by 185 singers from a dozen different countries. Within two months their joint recording attracted over a million views on YouTube and has now been viewed over four million times.
The project grew in numbers with Virtual Choir 2.0, "Sleep", and Virtual Choir 3, "Water Night", Virtual Choir 4 "Fly to Paradise" receiving over 8,400 submissions from 101 countries. Released in July 2013, the film was launched as part of the Coronation Festival at Buckingham Palace and televised on BBC 1.
To date, the four Virtual Choirs have registered over 15 million views. Recent Virtual Choir projects include "Glow" written for the Winter Dreams holiday show at Disneyland Adventure Park, California, and the Virtual Youth Choir, in association with UNICEF, which premiered at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.
