Step Up And Join The Global Online Orchestra

In the era of crowdsourcing, it was only a matter of time before tech-savvy music connoiseurs and time-tested performance traditions would find their unity in new media. Created as a trio effort between the Copenhagen Philharmonic, media design group Makropol, and the Canada-based Helios Design Labs, the World Online Orchestra aims to do just that by incorporating musicians from around the world in a synchronized performance e-space that doesn’t even require them to be on the same continent.

The project hasn’t quite reached fruition, though. It’s currently in Stage 1, which is sort of a teaser to the public intending to show just how beautiful WOO can be. Over at the website (heads up, it’s only works with Google Chrome) you’ll find videos of 40 Copenhagen Philharmonic musicians playing their parts in Beethoven’s 7th Sympony 2nd Movement. After you click “Begin,” you’re then able to isolate any of the video clips to hear musicians playing by themselves, coordinate different videos to create your own ensemble, or hear the entire Philharmonic harmonize together as if you were sitting in the front row of the Royal Danish Academy of Music’s Concert Hall.

When you click on a specific member, their video expands into full screen and you’re given some background info: what instrument they’re playing, where they’re located, and sometimes more.

The project sprouted from the Copenhagen Phil’s previous successes in marrying classical music and internet virality--two ideas which generally stand as polar opposites in the cultural spectrum because of one’s exclusive, elite appeal, and the other’s dependence on easily digestible content. A video of Philharmonic members slowly gathering in the Copenhagen’s Central Station in flash-mob style--playing their instruments upon arrival and filling out the melodic body of French composer Joseph-Maurice Ravel’s “Bolero”--was a hit on YouTube, gathering more than 7.5 million views and breathing life into the symphony’s relevance in popular culture. Watch it below.

The following year, they found more internet success with another flashmob conducted in Copenhagen’s Metro, with that video taking in about 6.5 million YouTube views. Classical music, it seemed, had found its niche among fail compilations and Miley Cyrus’ Vevo channel.

“This project is about forging cultural value,” says the Copenhagen Phil’s Artistic and Executive Director Uffe Savery. “In a fun and innovative way, we are trying to democratize and propagate both familiarity and personal contact with symphonic music. World Online Orchestra (W.O.O.) wants to make as many people as possible curious and creative in their relationship to that music.”

Savery continues: “We want to invite everyone into the fantastic universe of classical music, and we want to do our part so that creativity, curiosity, and inventiveness continue to be important elements in people’s lives and in their development.”

The project won’t surpass Stage 1 until it achieves its Kickstarter goal: $30,000 Canadian Dollars before February 26th. In the next stage, users around the world will then be able to record video of their solo performances and upload it into the WOO system for an even less exclusive, more experimental symphonic experience.

Watch the video for their Kickstarter campaign below:

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