Eric Whitacre developed the concept of a virtual choir better than a year ago and saw it come to fruition with an Internet performance of his work Lux Arumque last fall. This evening the 2.0 version makes its debut. The first venture included 185 singers; this year's numbers 2052 from 50 countries, with about 400 tenors!
From the WQXR site:
For the Virtual Choir 2.0 Whitacre posted a video online of himself conducting Sleep with a simple piano accompaniment. Choristers were invited to obtain the printed music and record themselves singing their individual part in front of a webcam, following his cues on screen and listening to the accompaniment in earphones. The closing date for entries was December 31, 2010.
In 2010 singers sent video recordings of themselves performing the anthem; Whitacre melded the videos into a single unit and added himself as conductor. The atmospheric nature of Lux Arumque lends itself to less precision than one would expect in other settings, so the piece works just fine. One suspects something similar with the new work, Sleep, and this second venture into virtual choral music. Below is last year's video. Click here and follow the links to listen this evening.
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