Eric Whitacre's Beauty

I was at a work conference yesterday that spoke to thinking outside the box and advancing our art into new paradigms using the technology and media that we have. Eric Whitacre came into the conversation, and I am very familiar with his work and thought I should revisit it and share it with others.

He is a choral composer from the West coast and the modern equivalent of a rock star in that industry. He has movie star good-looks to back up his tremendous talent and outreach. Everyone should know his work. I first became acquainted with it via the pageantry arts where winter guards started using his pieces and even drum corps would adapt his epic compositions for the field. They are complex clusters of heavenly chords.

But where we has pushed the envelope are his forays into the digital age. His first big "hit" was Sleep; where he opened his composition to a virtual world where singers across the globe could access the score along with his conducting of it - and then submit their own personal vocal track. Produced by Christophe Taddei and mixed by Floating Earth, it took 1752 vocalists from 78 countries and edited them into a glorious output.

More recently he went "live" with a virtual chorus of 150 selected vocalists from around the globe and conducted them in a unison concert of his Lux Aurumque. Both are amazing.