'Virtual Choir 3' Connects Singers from 73 Countries on YouTube

In 2009 a soprano named Britlin Losee posted a video of herself singing "Sleep" by composer Eric Whitacre on YouTube. The composer liked it so much that he encouraged his other fans to upload videos of themselves singing along. Three years later, the virtual choir he created with singers from all over the world is set to release its third recording. The first time around, Whitacre instructed his singers to use the same recording of "Sleep" by a British choir called Polyphony. He got software engineer Scott Haines to edit the results."When we cut it all together the entrances and cutoffs will be a little sloppy, but for this first time that’s all right," the composer wrote to the singers. For his next experiment, Whitacre would record himself conducting "Lux Aurumque" (Latin for "light and gold") with the hope of shaping the voices into one unified sound with his hands. The Grammy Award-winning composer is also a charismatic performer who can charm high school kids as easily as he keeps elderly patrons of the arts on the edge of their orchestra seats. Once again, Whitacre enlisted the voices of his many fans and the editing talents of Scott Haines on a new project called Virtual Choir 1.0. Within the first two months of its release, the recording of 185 people singing "Lux Aurumque" got 1 million hits on YouTube. The following year Whitacre called for 900 singers to collaborate on an encore performance of "Sleep" in order to earn the Guinness title of “world’s largest internet choir.” He needed a bigger platform, so he called on programmer Tony Piper to develop the backend systems and help manage the community. That year Whitacre more than doubled his goal, with 2052 contributions from singers in 58 countries for Virtual Choir 2.0. Loren Finkelstein, who sings with the New York Choral Society, had seen the first two virtual choirs online and decided to join in for the third. "I just followed them on Twitter and Facebook waiting for the announcement of the next one," he said. The assignment was "Water Night," a 14-part piece based on the poetry of Octavio Paz. Haunting, shimmering, and dark, it's one of the composer's most beloved and oft-performed works. The phrases are impossibly long and the harmonies are woven so closely together that the sound is as dense as water itself. "It was actually kinda freaky," Finkelstein said of the recording process. "As much as I always thought I was a good choral singer (and I still believe that I am); listening back to me, singing my own part, all alone, I couldn't stand it." Finkelstein's entry was one of 3,746 videos submitted from 73 countries around the world. "Even though we were all alone, there was a community aspect about it," he said, like the Facebook group where singers and fans gather for encouragement and news on upcoming projects. With the help of web designer Damien du Toit and the creative studio Cake.tv, the video will launch on April 2012 with a special event in New York City. On April 14, Virtual Choir 3.0 will be part of an exhibition to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the S.S. Titanic at the new visitor center in the city where it was built, Titanic Belfast. See a preview of the project in this report by MSNBC: Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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'Virtual Choir 3' Connects Singers from 73 Countries on YouTube

Devon Glenn

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Devon Glenn