Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir

For anyone who wants to believe in the humanizing possibilities of a connected world, here is your anthem.
- Chris Anderson, TED Curator

In September last year, Eric invited his online fans to participate in an ambitious attempt to create the world's largest virtual choir.

Featuring 2052 performances from singers in 58 countries, the Virtual Choir 2.0 - singing Whitacre's "Sleep" - is the largest assembled online in history, and far surpasses Whitacre's original goal of 900 voices.

Watch on Vimeo   Watch on YouTube

Upon previewing the video at TED 2011 in March, Eric (and the choir) received two standing ovations - testimony to the power of the internet to connect people of all backgrounds and abilities and create something beautiful across time and space.

The Virtual Choir began in May 2009 as a simple experiment in social media, when Britlin Losee - a fan of Eric's music - recorded a video of herself singing "Sleep" and shared it on YouTube.

After watching the video, Eric responded by sending a call out to his online fans to purchase Polyphony's recording of "Sleep", record themselves singing along to it, and upload the result. Read more...

Eric created the first Virtual Choir in 2010, which saw 185 singers from 12 different countries record and post on YouTube the soprano, alto, tenor, and bass parts of his "Lux Aurumque".

Produced by Scott Haines, the video received over 1 million hits in the first two months of its release.

For the evolution of the project, view Eric's blog post: The Virtual Choir: How We Did It

Join the Eric Whitacre Fanzone to keep updated on any future projects.