YouTube Symphony Orchestra Voting Begins

Three months ago, YouTube asked musicians to submit audition clips for its YouTube Symphony Orchestra. About 3,000 people responded. Now, experts have selected the best 200 performers, and it’s your turn to pick winners who will go on to Carnegie Hall.

A little refresher: contest participants are playing "The Internet Symphony," a piece composed by Tan Dun specifically for this competition. YouTube may have slipped up with the screening process – it’s hard to imagine that many folks will have the time to watch 200 music videos – but the voting window will stay open through February 22nd, which should make the idea of watching so much footage not entirely out of the question.

Also, anyone needing an extra push should know that the contest’s definitely a big deal; according to a blog post, YouTube received "audition videos from more than 70 countries and territories spanning six continents. Submissions came from Kazakhstan, Mauritania, Eritrea, Venezuela, Vietnam, Russia and the U.S. . . ."

So narrow the submissions according to musical instrument if need be. Or if you’d prefer to just skip to some highlights, the blog post notes that auditions featured "everything from the violin to the toy piano and even an audition on musical saw from GrandmaTF," and then states, "Here’s a playlist of some of the more ‘unique’ performances and related clips about the event."

Contest winners will be announced on March 2nd. April 15th will be the big day at Carnegie Hall.