Kitcatt Nohr Digitas

 

A while back, my esteemed colleague Mr Phil Keevill told me the story of an orchestra recruited via YouTube. Naturally, I was intrigued, and set out to find out more.

It's a tale that started two years ago, with YouTube announcing a competition to recruit an orchestra to perform at New York's Carnegie Hall, under the direction of renowned conductor Michael Tilson Thomas.

So far so classical, you might say. The difference was that the orchestra was recruited via an online audition process: crowdsourced, in a word.

More than 3,000 musicians posted auditions, and a shortlist of 200 were voted for by YouTube viewers.

In the end, more than 90 players from over 30 countries performed at Carnegie Hall, to massive acclaim.

So much so that the process has been repeated this year, with the orchestra slated to play at Sydney Opera House in March 2011.

So if you fancy trying your hand, you're too late for this year, but there's still time to get practising for 2012. You'll find a series of masterclasses and suggested pieces for improvisation on YouTube. They're not easy, though.

You can see the winners here: