YouTube Symphony Orchestra Makes Its Debut
Performance sells out in brick-and-mortar world of Carnegie Hall
After months of anticipation and media attention, the 96 members of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra convened in New York City for four intense, rehearsal-packed days that culminated April 15 in a sold-out performance at Carnegie Hall. Although it was not always obvious what exactly YouTube’s goal was in producing this bold, high-energy spectacle—the musicians, or “winners,” had been selected from videotaped auditions uploaded to YouTube by more than 3,000 hopefuls from 70 different countries and territories—it’s clear that the upstart Web company wasn’t attempting to put on an ordinary symphonic concert.
The concert program included a commissioned work by Tan Dun and selections from 18 works, including Brahms’ Fourth Symphony, Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, and pieces by John Cage, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and Lou Harrison. Michael Tilson Thomas conducted. The ages of the musicians, who had been selected by a jury that included San Francisco maestro Tilson Thomas, ranged from cello prodigy Stephane Tetreault, 15, of Quebec, Canada, to a 55-year-old horn player from Great Britain. There were enough professional musicians and students from top conservatories to carry the orchestra, but some of the selections seemed to be based on YouTube’s goal to represent as many regions as possible, as well as a cross-section of musical professionals and amateurs. Many of the winners, including violist Pawel Czarny, 19, of Krakow, Poland, who had never flown on an airplane before, were astonished by the good fortune of being selected. Spirits among the musicians were, without exception, infectiously high, despite the grueling schedule that included up to eight hours of rehearsal each day.
“It’s like the Olympics of classical music and the United Nations of classical music,” says 22-year-old violinist Renee Noel Gilliland of El Paso, Texas. Gilliland had noticed an announcement on YouTube’s home page in January and uploaded her viola audition at the last minute, all in the midst of preparing for grad school auditions. “I didn’t think I’d get in,” she says, “and when I found out, I told my mom, who is also a violinist, and we were freaking out!”
Among the rank-and-file musicians taking part were George Dunham, a cellist from Reno, Nevada, who earns his living as a professional poker player; Calvin Lee, a 38-year-old surgeon from Modesto, California, who studied violin seriously as a boy, but quit lessons and practicing for 25 years until he dusted off his instrument to record his audition video in January; and David France, who received extensive press coverage as “the violinist from Bermuda,” although he is a native of Connecticut with high-level violin credentials (he studied with Sally O’Reilly at the University of Minnesota and Aaron Janse of the Minnesota Orchestra).
Some of the winners are unapologetic outsiders to the classical music world, with little or no orchestral experience. For instance, Manuel Zogbi, a 31-year-old Mexican violinist, is a jazz and tango specialist. “When I uploaded my audition, I looked over the repertoire choices and picked the Bach because, to me, Bach is the greatest jazz musician,” Zogbi says.
Zogbi had never heard the audition piece, the Presto from Bach’s G minor Sonata, so he took the label presto at face value. His lightning-fast recording earned some catcalls from regular YouTube viewers, but attracted the attention of Tan Dun, who handpicked him to serve as concertmaster at the premiere of the composer’s Internet Symphony No. 1: Eroica. Zogbi’s playing is flashy and virtuosic, although close observers of the concert videos will notice that his bowings were often at odds with the section he was leading.
YouTube spared no expense in hiring top talent to support its orchestra: in addition to Tilson Thomas and Dun, the company brought in an arsenal of mentors from the New York Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Vienna Philharmonic. Violist Roberto Díaz and violinist Joel Smirnoff coached the string sections. Together, the mentors had just three days to whip the YTSO into a cohesive unit. All things considered, and with an uneven array of talent and experience, the orchestra sounded pretty good on its big night, helped along by such top-notch guest soloists as violinist Gil Shaham and pianist Yuja Wang.
The buzz that night, both in the hall and worldwide among the followers of YouTube’s “Vlog Squad” was ecstatic. And the next morning, all of the members of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra packed up their instruments, said their tearful good-byes, and flew home.
Whether YouTube will continue to delve into classical music, and, if so, how, remains a question that the Internet company has so far declined to answer.
An independent documentary, Harmony: The Road to Carnegie Hall, is in the works and will chronicle the recent event.
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