TED Talk#2 Eric Whitacre: A virtual choir 2,000 voices strong

Eric Whitacre was a young man in high school and college when he decided he would make music his career choice. When he was in high school he aspired to be a pop artist, but as he grew and matured, he joined his college’s choir. Whitacre felt something that first day that he had never felt before; enlightenment. Whitacre says that when the choir opened up the score and began to sing it was like nothing he had ever known. He describes this experience as, “finally seeing in Technicolor”. He says that he felt like he was part of something bigger than himself. Everyone in that choir could share in the beauty and sound they were creating, no restraints or limits. He later wrote music for choirs and piece by piece became known by many. It only took one small moment, that first note to spark this man into a future and success. The next great achievement in his life was also sparked with one movement; a viral video fan. This girl sent a video to Whitacre singing part of his song as an innocent girl, not having the slightest idea that she would begin a worldwide connection between thousands. If you care to watch this truly breathe taking video, here is the link to the full edition; . I took away that an epiphany can happen anytime, we all want to be bigger than ourselves and people can share beauty through music, virally and physically.

Whitacre’s presentation was to be very personal with the audience by telling them his childhood dream and how he became entranced by music. In that way he was able to connect to the viewers and audience. He did have some humor to keep the feel light. However, his videos and stories were so poetic and unimaginable that he did not need much talking to explain his movement. He had several videos that really took the place of a lengthy speech. His style was very different from that of Sir Robinson’s. Robinson connected with the audience through various stories and constituent humor but Whitacre did not focus on the verbalization, he focused on the technology. Whitacre really wanted to get across that technology can make people feel connections as they would if they were in the same room or even continent together.

This is how the Virtual Choir matters in the world. It illustrates how people are making those connections and social web with each other in the modern times. People used to not even know others in a separate town, much less the other side of the world. Now people have more online dating, online socialization (MySpace and Facebook), online updates (Twitter) and now they can make that right-brained, artistic, creative connection. People can achieve the highest level on the hierarchy of needs, purpose. It matters in my life because I enjoy singing and making music and if there is an easier, more universal way to do that, I would like to be a part of that. Because the audition videos were sent in and not live, people got more than one chance to be their best. They had more time and practice to make their voices sound perfect (or at least the way they wanted to sound). This allows for people to adjust and change, they are able to adapt.

This Virtual Choir changes the way we see human connection, high pressure situations, how to get an idea started and think about acclimatizing to the future.

For the TED Talk that showed this movement go to; Eric Whitacre's TED Talk

For the original choir; Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir

For the second, 58 country, 2,000+ member choir; Eric Whitacre - Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir 2.0, 'Sleep'