David Gildeh

Today I found out about a very interesting competition on YouTube, the YouTube Symphony Orchestra. Tan Dun, the Chinese composer who wrote the soundtrack for Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, has composed a piece which you can download as PDF sheet music for each instrument and then follow him online while he conducts you in a video. I originally thought you had to learn his peice and then record it to submit online, but fortunately (as a 2nd violin part would be very boring by itself!) you can choose from a range of famous pieces to play to show off your talent for each instrument. All you have to do is practice your chosen piece, record it and upload it to YouTube, and then submit it using the competition page for entry into the competition. The cool part is the best performers get flown to New York to perform his composition at Carnegie Hall in April.

The competition closes on  January 28th, 2009, which unfortunately for me is not enough time for me to pick up my violin properly again for the first time in 11 years and try to get good enough again to play in this event. Too bad, I would have loved to. However if you are good enough to play, make sure you submit an entry, it looks like an excellent event to get involved in!