TED Talk Thursday – Eric Whitacre: A choir as big as the Internet

by | Apr 7, 2011 | Creativity, Music, TED Talks, Video

For those of you not familiar with TED Talks here is a brief summery of them from www.ted.com:

“TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences — the TED Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK each summer — TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Project and Open TV Project, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize.”

Today I want to introduce you to one of my favorite composers and one of his most beautiful works. What’s so unusual about this comtempory composer? From TED’s Best of the Web:

“A virtual choir of 185 voices from 12 countries join a choir that spans the globe: “Lux Aurumque,” composed and conducted by Eric Whitacre, merges hundreds of tracks individually recorded and posted to YouTube. It’s an astonishing illustration of how technology can connect us.”

“Eric Whitacre began his music career singing in his college choir, with no previous musical experience. By 21, he had completed his first concert work, Go, Lovely Rose, and soon advanced to Juilliard where he studied under Oscar-winning composer John Corigliano. Today, his 44 published concert pieces have sold over a million copies, he has conducted choral music in some of the most esteemed halls in the world and his music has been featured on dozens of commercial recordings. His album Cloudburst and Other Choral Works earned him a Grammy nomination in 2007.”

“Most recently, Whitacre has been noticed for his cutting-edge work, Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings, a musical that combines electronica with choral and operatic traditions. The musical has earned him the prestigious Richard Rodgers Award, received 10 nominations at the 2007 Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Awards, and performed to a sold-out crowd at Carnegie Hall in 2010.”

And he is currently at it again, creating another even larger Virtual Choir to perform his famous piece “Sleep.”

Enjoy this amazing video, then hear Eric talk about how it all began.

Come back next week and see the new video of Eric’s piece, “Sleep,” sung by a virtual choir of 2000!

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I look forward to your thoughts and comments!

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Thursday Talks-9 Year Old Teacher Wows Adults

by | Mar 31, 2011 | Spiritual Awakening, Video

 

For a number of weeks I’ve been having TED Talk Thursdays, posting an interesting or inspiring talk from ted.com. This week I’m sharing with you another talk, this one given by a 9 year old. You’ll be amazed at her wisdom and I hope inspired. If 9 year olds know this much, there’s hope for humanity. Enjoy this video as a 9 year old shares her thoughts on what its like to meditate on God, why people have egos and where they come from.

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I look forward to your thoughts and comments!

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TED Talks Thursdays – Carl Honore Praises Slowness

by | Feb 3, 2011 | TED Talks, Video

I thought since I am doing a series of Mandala Mondays, it might be nice to do some TED Talks Thursdays. For those of you not familiar with TED Talks here is a brief summery of them from www.ted.com:

TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences — the TED Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK each summer — TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Project and Open TV Project, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize.

In today’s post; “Journalist Carl Honore believes the Western world’s emphasis on speed erodes health, productivity and quality of life. But there’s a backlash brewing, as everyday people start putting the brakes on their all-too-modern lives. Honore’s bestselling book In Praise of Slowness plots the lineage of our speed-obsessed society; while it recognizes the difficulty of slowing down, it also highlights the successes of everyday people around the world who have found ways of doing it. Honoré traces his “Aha” moment to his son’s bedtime, when Honore would race through storybooks — skipping pages, reading portions of paragraphs — to move things along. (He’s since reformed.)” -TED Talks

I hope you enjoy this. If you have a favorite TED Talk, let me know. I’d love to have  your input.

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I look forward to your thoughts and comments!

Be sure to Subscribe to this blog either by RSS or Email via the forms on the top right column of the page.