YouTube taps 90 international musicians for inaugural cyber-orchestra

The auditions are over. The first YouTube Symphony Orchestra selected by viewers of the website will consist of more than 90 musicians from some 30 countries.

More than 3,000 videos were submitted by amateur and professional musicians from more than 70 countries. Musicians from professional orchestras, including the London and San Francisco symphonies and the Berlin, Hong Kong and New York philharmonic orchestras, picked 200 finalists. The winners were then selected by voters on YouTube.

"We are excited about the talent, variety and adventurousness of the musicians who are coming together from around the world to form the YouTube Symphony Orchestra," conductor Michael Tilson Thomas said Monday.

"I am looking forward to our exploration of the incredible range of classical music's 1,200-year-old tradition, which we will present in a unique way to our audience."

The orchestra will have 26 different instruments. The selected musicians, ranging in age from17 to 55, will participate in three days of master classes and rehearsals next month, culminating in an April 15 concert at New York's Carnegie Hall conducted by Thomas, the San Francisco Symphony's musical director.

They will perform composer Tan Dun's Internet Symphony No. 1, Eroica, a piece specially arranged for the occasion. A mashup will be posted on YouTube on April 16.

Five Canadians are among the 90 musicians chosen:vibraphonist Gael Chabot-Leclerc from Saguenay, Que.; viola player Yunior Lopez from Toronto; violinist Donovan Seidle from Calgary; cellist Stephane Tetreault from Montreal and bassist Ian Whitman from Kitchener, Ont.

Whitman says YouTube shows how young people can be attracted to classical music.

"The only way classical music will continue on through this new generation is if we play on old instruments but advertise through new mediums," said the musician, who has studied at McGill, Yale and the New England Conservatory.

"The young audiences are on YouTube and when people hear classical music, they love it. The way to get it to them is through the sites they visit every day."

The international winners are from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine and the U.S.