274. THE WORLD'S COOLEST CHOIR DIRECTOR by un'Americana a Venezia

Eric Whitacre è un compositore statunitense, conosciuto per la sua musica corale. Nel 2009, dopo la visione di un video inviato da una sua giovane ammiratrice  in cui ella interpretava un suo pezzo con la voce di soprano, elaborò il progetto di creare un coro virtuale con le voci di interpreti che avrebbero inviato la registrazione della loro parte. Il primo pezzo così realizzato fu 'Lux Aurumque'.  Whitacre per prima cosa caricò su Youtube un video silenzioso in cui si vedeva solo lui che dirigeva il suo pezzo ma senza musica. Nel 2012 è stato prodotto Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir 3, 'Water Night' con 3746 video da 73 Paesi. RR

If you are moved by the sound of a well-blended chorus singing chords so ethereal that they can't help but stir your emotions, then have I got the artist for you!  Check him out at YouTube along with other great choral composers such as Morten Lauridsen, Ola Gjeilo, and Sir John Tavener whose sublime "Song for Athene" was performed at Princess Diana's funeral.  But for the moment, I would like to exalt the world's coolest choir director, Eric Whitacre.  At 43, this native of Nevada (USA) has composed various symphonic pieces, a musical entitled "Paradise Lost:  Shadows and Wings," and dozens of choral pieces which nearly all came into being thanks to poetry.  The texts of Whitacre's compositions serve as his inspiration.  He meditates on them, absorbs them, and then, usually over the course of months, lets the music emerge.  He has made music for poems written by his wife and friends as well as by widely recognized poets such as Emily Dickinson, e.e. cummings, Rumi, Federico Garcia Lorca, Robert Frost and Rudyard Kipling.  He won a Grammy for Best Choral Performance in 2012 for his album "Light & Gold" featuring the ineffably beautiful "Lux Aurumque" and "Sleep."  Perhaps not coincidentally, most of Whitacre's fans are fascinated by his silky hair with its golden blond reflections.  Up on the stage at the Grammy Awards ceremony, his first words were, typically, "Woo-hoo!"  Then, "Choir geeks of the world, unite!"  He also said he could now fight off his wife, soprano Hila Plitmann, with his heavy Grammy statue every time she threatened to attack him with her own.  Just a goofy joke, of course.  Whitacre is totally dedicated to both her and their son who often travel with him.  Originally, he wanted to be a pop rockstar.  At the tender age of eighteen, lured mainly by the promise of a free field trip to Mexico, not to mention the hotties in the Soprano section, he let himself be persuaded by University of Nevada choir director, David Weiller, to join the choir.  This was the move that changed his life.  In fact, to hear him tell the story, when on his first day he heard the members of the Bass section launch all around him into the Kyrie from Mozart's Requiem, Eric Whitacre's vision changed forever.  In that very instant, he suddenly knew he was part of something much greater than himself.  The rest is history.  What makes Whitacre so special, apart from his unusual sensibility, his skill as a speaker, and his notably good looks, is his global project which got off the ground for the first time thanks to a YouTube video a young soprano made for him.  As he watched and listened to her rendition of one of his songs, it occurred to him that if he could get at least fifty other such singers to submit homemade videos, he could put their voices together.  And so he did.  The project was called "Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir."  He has repeated this global experience at least three times:  it now involves literally thousands of singers from nearly one hundred countries all over the world who make videos of themselves singing their parts (Soprano, Alto, Tenor or Bass) and then upload them.  Whitacre selects the best, considering such things as diction and pitch, and then his assistant assembles them to create a final top quality performance of a single song starring the Virtual Choir which, at last count, numbered in the thousands.  To use Whitacre's own words, it's all about "Clear, clean, beautiful singing coming together from all over the world."  To which he might add, "Woo-hoo!"  Each participant, he said in a TED talk available with Italian subtitles at his own website, is "almost like part of a family" and each is acknowledged at the end of the final product.  Many of the virtual choir members go on to become close friends through the Internet, too.  Those of us who don't sing in the choir but who appreciate the effort get to be part of the audience!  Which means listening to the music of the spheres being broadcast at YouTube, right here, right now!  Woo-hoo!  Besides being a classical music composer and conductor, Whitacre is also a lecturer and teacher.  He is about to begin a new concert tour in the USA with The Eric Whitacre Singers who will perform numbers by Bach and Lauridsen as well as by Whitacre.  Please visit his site for more information about the man, his schedule, and the Virtual Choir.  And thank you, Maestro, for being so very cool.  UN'AMERICANA A VENEZIA