The New Orchestra: Symphonic Innovation Around the World
By Maria Popova
Today, we’re doing something different. Instead of the usual indie up-and-comer, we’re going back to the idea that the best of innovation comes from taking tradition and flipping it on its head. In music, it doesn’t get more traditional than orchestras. So, today, we’re looking at three groundbreaking ways of orchestrating orchestras.
HAMBURG PHILHARMONIC
Last Monday, the Hamburg Philahrmonic put on a grand show — in fact, it was the world’s biggest music performance.
Instead of their usual venue, the 100 musicians took to the city, dispensing across 50 locations, replicating the layout of a concert hall stage on a much larger scale.
Overlooking this grand stage from the top of St. Michaelis Church, Hamburg’s highest point, the conductor worked her magic.
The musicians themselves were connected with each other via live video feed, with flatscreens propped right next to their sheet music — a wonderful metaphor for the classical-two-point-ohness of the stunt.
Watch the teaser video to really grasp the brilliance of this endeavor and the scale of the performance. Genius.
GUSTAVO DUDAMEL AT TED
Gustavo Dudamel is known as one of the most exciting and animated conductors of our time. He is also one of the youngest.
At last month’s TED, he led a truly jaw-dropping performance that elicited a standing ovation like no other — he conducted The Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra, composed of the best high school musicians from Venezuela’s life-changing music program, El Sistema, of which Dudamel himself is a product.
The performance is nothing short of awe-inspiring. But, more importantly, it’s a testament to the need — the urgency — of preserving and advancing music education, of harnessing youth talent, of fostering the culture and the cult of musical genius.
GOOGLE COLLABORATIVE ORCHESTRA
We firmly believe collaboration is the future of every aspect of culture. And Google is taking the lead on the music front. Last week, they announced the winners of the world’s first online collaborative orchestra.
The contest called for professional and amateur musicians to “audition” for the 90 spots on the YouTube Symphony Orchestra. Entries came from over 30 countries on six continents, with musicians playing some 26 different instruments. The 90 international winners, who will travel to New York to perform at Carnegie Hall, were selected by the YouTube community and a panel of performers from the world’s most renowned orchestras.
You can see all the winning audition videos on the YouTube Symphony Orchestra Channel. They are, needless to say, phenomenal.
The orchestra will participate in a collaborative summit for classical music in New York next month, wrapping up with their Carnegie Hall concert — which, by the way, will be conducted by none other than San Francisco Symphony Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas, also founder of New World Symphony and Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra.
Here’s to making collaboration the new classic.
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Published March 9, 2009
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https://www.themarginalian.org/2009/03/09/orchestra-innovation/
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