YouTube Symphony

Had a hiatus for the last one and a half month. Was not really busy just irritated to think and write as it is spring time here and I have pollen allergies. So dedicated my time to catch up on sleep as I was in a sedated state most of the time. But alls well and there is lots I already did this summer. Will write about it in the coming blogs.

This post I will write about the one interesting musical performance that I attended in New York.

YouTube Symphony :
April 15th was the inaugural show for the YouTube Symphony aptly called The Internet Symphony - a Global Mash Up. This is the link to their main website.
It is my belief that the overall concept of this event is something which historians will write about when they write about the positive aspects of the internet and this period of digital revolution.
Few years back I had read a book by Thomas Friedman - The World is Flat - which basically spoke of how the entire world is a level field for work and business because of the advent of the computers. The whole process of outsourcing, working from home, multitasking etc etc.
Based on similar ideas - in the case of Youtube - they asked musicians from all over the world to post their videos playing one new piece written for the occasion by the renowned Chinese composer Tan Dun. Based on that they selected 96 musicians - from all corners of the world - from completly diverse fields - surgeons, mechanics, farmers, teachers - who played a particular instrument as a hobby. This whole group performed for over 2-1/2 hours and it was a brilliant performance comparable to musical performance by professionals.

Here are two videos of the entire show if you are interested - do see fast forwarding parts of it - there are acts where a chinese girl plays on different sizes of cars tyre rims, there is an european DJ - mashing techno with classical, there is three kids playing simultaneously on one piano the same composition.

Why I believe that this will be part of History is

- Its an event where totally unknown faces got an exposure just for their sheer talent

- Computers, Internet and specially YouTube - things that were unknown a decade back - brought about the possibility of such an event. Makes me wonder how people must have felt when Henry Ford introduced the Model T in 1908 that revolutionised the entire car industry.

- Symphony usually is an elite event usually with older listeners and not the kind of music that Yuppies or Dinks listen to but that boundary was shattered as the crowd attending this event was really Young.

-This probably is a beginning of a great idea that can be expanded to any creative fields.

And finally if and when I do have grand kids I can tell them - Ahem I was there then!

(Next post - A night with Zakir Hussain and Pandit Shivkumar Sharma)