November 1, 2009

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Inside the YouTube symphony

Posted by Sarah Hutchins

Jacobs School of Music students Daniel Stein, Dash Nesbitt, and Renee Gilliland participated in the YouTube symphony. Musicians from around the world uploaded audition videos hoping to land a spot in the global concert at Carnegie Hall in New York. After two days of rehearsal – and a few global jam sessions – the orchestra played a three-hour concert to a sold-out audience. Here are some of the musicians’ favorite YouTube videos from the event.

Renee Gilliland’s Video Blog

Gilliland, a violist, posted video diaries from her New York hotel room each day.

“I honestly decided that each night I would summarize what happened, because I knew I would forget. So I decided to do this in my hotel room and I posted it and thought this is going to be the kind of video where it’s like one view for ten years. And then one of the ladies who was coordinating the event featured it, and one of them has like 67,000 hits. It’s amazing and it’s not amazing that people would be interested in this because it’s such an innovative, first time thing that they’ve done.”

Jeremy Denk’s Video Blog

Some of Daniel Stein’s favorite videos from the event were made by YouTube Symphony blogger Jeremy Denk. The pianist carried his flip camera around to capture the magic. Check out this video called: “First Day of Rehearsal Vlog, with Manufactured Controversies by Jeremy Denk”

Manuel Zogbi, “Lagrimas Negaras”

“There was one violinist I was really inspired by, Manuel Zogbi,” Nesbit said. “He had a lion head on the top of his violin. He just had this freedom about his music.”

In this video Zogbi, who made it to the symphony from Mexico, improvises on Lagrimas Negras playing guitar and violin.