THE VIRTUAL CHOIR

Imagine having the opportunity to sing together with hundreds of other people while you are at home alone. You can do this in a virtual choir. Virtual choir members record themselves while they perform alone on video. These videos are uploaded onto the Internet, and then they are put together into one video that you can see online—a virtual choir. Anyone can take part in a virtual choir from anywhere—all you need is a video camera and an Internet connection. You do not even need a studio. A virtual choir helps connect ordinary people together. Many people do not have close friends or contacts who have the same interest in music. Many others do not have the chance to join a local choir. A virtual choir enables them to add their voices to those of other individuals and become part of the global community. It has proved to be a positive influence on the lives of many people. As one virtual choir member said, “Music helps me to, forget my problems. With music, I become someone else.”

The virtual choir was the idea of award­winning composer and conductor Eric Whitacre. Born in the USA on 2 January 1970, Whitacre began studying music at the University   of Nevada in 1988.He fell in love with Mozart’s classical music when he sang for the university choir[6]. Moved by this music, he said, “It was like seeing color for the first time.” He graduated from university in 1995, and then received a master’s degree in musical composition from the Juilliard School in New York in 1997.Over the next 10 years, Whitacre’s original compositions began to become quite popular among choirs and singers. This led to the creation of the virtual choir.

In 2009，Whitacre received a video of a girl who was singing one of his works. Inspired, he asked his fans to make videos, which he then joined together into one performance. His first virtual choir, “Lux Aurumque”, had 185 singers from 12 different countries. It has received millions of views on the Internet. Since then, the virtual choir has become a worldwide phenomenon. Whitacre’s next effort was the Virtual Youth Choir for UNICEF, which was first seen on stage on 23 July 2014 in the UK. Altogether, 2,292 young people from 80 countries joined in to sing Whitacre’s song “What If”.

The virtual choir is a wonderful way for people around the world to sing with one voice and thus make the world a better place.

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Although the piano keys come in black and white, the music it produces is full of color. Chinese pianist Tian Jiaxin explores creative performances and crossover cooperations with traditional Chinese music, with the hope of bringing the music of the East to the Western world.

Tian attended regular school instead of studying at a music school in her childhood. This enabled her to absorb China’s rich culture and understand the bigger picture later in her pursuit of a career as a professional pianist. “There’s so much to grasp when explaining a piece. What we`re conveying is not only the notes, but the culture behind the music,” Tian said.

As a Chinese pianist, Tian is looking to add more depth to her performances, stressing the contrast between Eastern and Western cultures. “No matter which country I am performing in, I always include Chinese music in my program. With Western pieces, I hope to show the world that a female musician from China can perform the music that they are familiar with and love.” Tian says that she believes her mission is to make China heard on a wider stage.

Tian believes that music is developing over time and that music from different ages has its own unique meaning. “I’ve found that people’s understanding of Chinese music is often limited to certain pieces like Jasmine Flower,” Tian said. “However, there are so many great pieces of Chinese music that are unacquainted outside of China. So, I always try to feature both the time-honored classics of Chinese music and the newly created pieces,” she added.

“Chinese music has the magic to cause resonance(共鸣) with the audience and convey the various and deep culture of Chinese civilization,” Tian said.

Florence, a 17-year-old senior student in high school, was busy composing (创作) a song. She plans to publish an album (音乐专辑) with three other music lovers whom she met at the 2016 Campus Singing Competition. Edward, 18, is another one of the four students to make their own album. Actually he was the one who came up with this fun idea in the first place.

“Everyone loves music. Being a good way to express our feelings and emotions, music can tell something about who we are and our experience of the world. We hope we can use our music to touch our peers (同龄人),” Edward said.

The album includes 15 songs on three themes-love, campus life and youth, with pop and electronic music styles. The inspiration for the songs came from the students’ lives. Take the song Sea of Tranquility for example—it was written by Edward during a flight back to Chengdu after he took part in the China High School Biology Olympiad in summer. “The sky is clear and the ground looks small from the plane. This scene makes me feel calm and peaceful,” Edward explained.

The songs were created one by one with the efforts of the four writers. But a challenge soon appeared. The students found that they didn’t have enough money to produce the album. So to cut down their costs, they used an iPad and headphones to record the songs in an empty classroom on the weekend.

Apart from reducing their costs, they also tried to raise money through crowdfunding on the Internet. They raised more than 7,000 dollars before the album was published in October. “Thanks to all the supporters, we’ll keep working on our own music,” Edward said.