I wanted to be a rock star. I dreamed of it, and that's all I dreamed of. To be more accurate, I wanted to be a pop star. This was in the late '80s. And mostly I wanted to be the fifth member of Depeche Mode or Duran Duran. They wouldn't have me. I didn't read music, but I played synthesizers and drum machines. And I grew up in this little farming town in northern Nevada. And I was certain that's what my life would be.
Chcel som byť rockovou hviezdou. To bolo jediné, o čom som sníval. Presnejšie, chcel som byť popovou hviezdou. To bolo v neskorých 80-tych rokoch. Chcel som byť piatym členom Depeche Mode alebo Duran Duran. Nechceli ma. Nepoznal som hudobnú teóriu, ale hral som na synťáku a bubnoch. Vyrástol som v malej farmárskej dedine v severnej Nevade. Bol som si istý, že môj život mal byť už raz taký.
And when I went to college at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas when I was 18, I was stunned to find that there was not a Pop Star 101, or even a degree program for that interest. And the choir conductor there knew that I sang and invited me to come and join the choir. And I said, "Yes, I would love to do that. It sounds great." And I left the room and said, "No way." The choir people in my high school were pretty geeky, and there was no way I was going to have anything to do with those people. And about a week later, a friend of mine came to me and said, "Listen, you've got to join choir. At the end of the semester, we're taking a trip to Mexico, all expenses paid. And the soprano section is just full of hot girls." And so I figured for Mexico and babes, I could do just about anything.
Keď som šiel na univerzitu v Las Vegas, mal som 18 a prekvapilo ma, že tam neponúkali "Základy Popových Hviezd," či len podobný diplom. Dirigent ich speváckeho zboru vedel, že viem spievať, a tak ma pozval do ich zboru. "Áno, rád by som. Znie to skvele." Na odchode som si povedal: "V žiadnom prípade." Ľudia z môjho stredoškolského zboru boli dosť divní. V žiadnom prípade som s nimi nechcel mať nič spoločné. O týždeň neskôr ku mne prišiel kamarát a povedal: ''Vážne poď do zboru. Na konci semestra ideme na výlet do Mexika, všetky náklady pokryté. A soprány sú samé pekné dievčatá." Tak som si povedal, že pre Mexiko a baby by som urobil takmer čokoľvek.
And I went to my first day in choir, and I sat down with the basses and sort of looked over my shoulder to see what they were doing. They opened their scores, the conductor gave the downbeat, and boom, they launched into the Kyrie from the "Requiem" by Mozart. In my entire life I had seen in black and white, and suddenly everything was in shocking Technicolor. The most transformative experience I've ever had -- in that single moment, hearing dissonance and harmony and people singing, people together, the shared vision. And I felt for the first time in my life that I was part of something bigger than myself. And there were a lot of cute girls in the soprano section, as it turns out.
V prvý deň zboru som si sadol s basami a obzrel sa cez plece, že čo robia. Otvorili si noty, dirigent mávol, a bum, začali spievať Kyrie z Mózartovho "Requiem." Celý život som videl čierno-bielo a zrazu malo všetko farby. Bol to najtransformatívnejší zážitok, aký som kedy zažil - v tom jedinom okamihu som počul disonanciu a harmóniu, ľudia spievali spolu spoločnú víziu. Prvýkrát v živote som cítil, že som súčasťou niečoho väčšieho, než som ja sám. A soprány boli samé pekné dievčatá.
I decided to write a piece for choir a couple of years later as a gift to this conductor who had changed my life. I had learned to read music by then, or slowly learning to read music. And that piece was published, and then I wrote another piece, and that got published. And then I started conducting, and I ended up doing my master's degree at the Juilliard School. And I find myself now in the unlikely position of standing in front of all of you as a professional classical composer and conductor.
Napísal som pre ten zbor pieseň o dva roky neskôr. Ako darček tomu dirigentovi, ktorý mi zmenil život. Vtedy som už vedel čítať noty. Tá pieseň bola spublikovaná. Potom som napísal a publikoval ešte jednu. Potom som začal dirigovať. Šiel som na magisterské štúdium na Julliard School. A teraz som v nezvyklej pozícii a stojím tu pred vami ako profesionálny skladateľ a dirigent.
Well a couple of years ago, a friend of mine emailed me a link, a YouTube link, and said, "You have got to see this." And it was this young woman who had posted a fan video to me, singing the soprano line to a piece of mine called "Sleep."
Pred dvomi rokmi mi priateľ poslal odkaz na YouTube a povedal: "Toto musíš vidieť." Jedna mladá žena tam dala video - pre mňa. Spievala soprán z mojej piesne "Spánok."
(Video) Britlin Losee: Hi Mr. Eric Whitacre. My name is Britlin Losee, and this is a video that I'd like to make for you. Here's me singing "Sleep." I'm a little nervous, just to let you know. ♫ If there are noises ♫ ♫ in the night ♫
(Video) "Ahoj, pán Eric Whitacre. Volám sa Britlin Losee, a toto video je pre vás. Zaspievam "Spánok." Som trochu nervózna. ♫ Ak v noci počuť ♫ ♫ zvuky ♫
Eric Whitacre: I was thunderstruck. Britlin was so innocent and so sweet, and her voice was so pure. And I even loved seeing behind her; I could see the little teddy bear sitting on the piano behind her in her room. Such an intimate video.
Eric Whitacre: Ohromilo ma to. Britlin bola taká nevinná a zlatá a jej hlas bol taký číry. A za sebou, vo svojej izbe, mala na klavíri plyšáka. Také intímne video.
And I had this idea: if I could get 50 people to all do this same thing, sing their parts -- soprano, alto, tenor and bass -- wherever they were in the world, post their videos to YouTube, we could cut it all together and create a virtual choir. So I wrote on my blog, "OMG OMG." I actually wrote, "OMG," hopefully for the last time in public ever. (Laughter) And I sent out this call to singers. And I made free the download of the music to a piece that I had written in the year 2000 called "Lux Aurumque," which means "light and gold." And lo and behold, people started uploading their videos.
Napadlo mi: ak by 50 ľudí spravilo to isté, soprány, alty, tenory, basy a dali svoje videá na YouTube, spravili by sme z toho virtuálny zbor. Tak som napísal na svoj blog: "OMG OMG." Skutočne som napísal "OMG." Dúfam, že verejne naposledy. (Smiech) A vyslal som odkaz spevákom. Nechal som ich zadarmo si stiahnuť noty k piesni, ktorú som napísal v roku 2000, nazvanej "Lux Aurumque," čo znamená "svetlo a zlato." Ľudia skutočne začali uploadovať videá.
Now I should say, before that, what I did is I posted a conductor track of myself conducting. And it's in complete silence when I filmed it, because I was only hearing the music in my head, imagining the choir that would one day come to be. Afterwards, I played a piano track underneath so that the singers would have something to listen to. And then as the videos started to come in ...
Ešte by som mal povedať, že som im dal video samého seba, ako dirigujem. Vo videu dirigujem v úplnej tichosti, pretože som počul hudbu len v mojej hlave, predstavujúc si zbor, ktorý sa mal raz zrodiť. Neskôr som k tomu hral na klavíri, aby mali speváci doprovod. Keď sa videá začali hromadiť...
(Singing) This is Cheryl Ang from Singapore.
(Spev) Toto je Cheryl Ang zo Singapúru.
(Singing) This is Evangelina Etienne
(Spev) Evangelina Etienne
(Singing) from Massachusetts.
(Spev) z Massachusetts.
(Singing) Stephen Hanson from Sweden.
(Spev) Stephen Hanson zo Švédska.
(Singing) This is Jamal Walker from Dallas, Texas.
(Spev) Jamal Walker z Dallasu, Texas.
(Singing)
(Spev)
There was even a little soprano solo in the piece, and so I had auditions. And a number of sopranos uploaded their parts. I was told later, and also by lots of singers who were involved in this, that they sometimes recorded 50 or 60 different takes until they got just the right take -- they uploaded it. Here's our winner of the soprano solo. This is Melody Myers from Tennessee. (Singing) I love the little smile she does right over the top of the note -- like, "No problem, everything's fine."
Mali sme aj krátke sólo pre soprán, tak sme mali konkurzy. Zopár sopránistiek poskytlo svoje videá. Neskôr mi povedali, a aj mnohí iní z týchto spevákov, že niekedy nahrali 50 či 60 pokusov, až kým nenahrali ten správny, ktorý uploadovali. Tu je náš víťazný soprán. Melody Myers z Tennessee. (Spev) Páči sa mi jej úsmev, keď vytiahne tú notu ako "Žiaden problém, všetko je v pohode."
(Laughter)
(Smiech)
And from the crowd emerged this young man, Scott Haines. And he said, "Listen, this is the project I've been looking for my whole life. I'd like to be the person to edit this all together." I said, "Thank you, Scott. I'm so glad that you found me." And Scott aggregated all of the videos. He scrubbed the audio. He made sure that everything lined up. And then we posted this video to YouTube about a year and a half ago. This is "Lux Aurumque" sung by the Virtual Choir.
A potom sa z davu vynoril mladý muž menom Scott Haines. Povedal: "Počuj, na tento projekt som čakal celý život. Rád by som to celé zeditoval." Ja na to: "Ďakujem, Scott. Som veľmi rád, že si ma našiel." Scott zhromaždil všetky videá. Vyčistil zvuk. Všetko zladil. A potom, asi pred rokom a pol, sme poskytli toto video na YouTube. Toto je "Lux Aurumque" naspievané Virtuálnym Zborom.
(Singing)
(Spev)
I'll stop it there in the interest of time. (Applause)
Kvôli času to tu zastavím. (Potlesk)
Thank you. Thank you.
Ďakujem. Ďakujem.
(Applause)
(Potlesk)
Thank you. So there's more. There's more. Thank you so much.
Ďakujem. Je toho viac. Je toho viac. Ďakujem pekne.
And I had the same reaction you did. I actually was moved to tears when I first saw it. I just couldn't believe the poetry of all of it -- these souls all on their own desert island, sending electronic messages in bottles to each other. And the video went viral. We had a million hits in the first month and got a lot of attention for it. And because of that, then a lot of singers started saying, "All right, what's Virtual Choir 2.0?" And so I decided for Virtual Choir 2.0 that I would choose the same piece that Britlin was singing, "Sleep," which is another work that I wrote in the year 2000 -- poetry by my dear friend Charles Anthony Silvestri. And again, I posted a conductor video, and we started accepting submissions. This time we got some more mature members. (Singing) And some younger members.
Moja reakcia bola rovnaká, ako tá vaša. Dojalo ma to k slzám, keď som to prvýkrát videl. Nemohol som uveriť tej poézii - tieto duše, samy, na svojom opustenom ostrove, si posielajú elektronické odkazy vo fľašiach. Video sa stalo populárnym. Milióny ľudí si ho pozreli v prvý mesiac. Video pútalo veľkú pozornosť. Vďaka tomu mnohí speváci začali hovoriť: "Žeby Virtuálny Zbor 2.0?" Pre Virtuálny Zbor 2.0 som vybral pieseň, ktorú spievala Britlin, "Spánok," ktorú som napísal v roku 2000 k poézii môjho priateľa Charlesa Anthonyho Silvestriho. Znovu som poskytol video, v ktorom dirigujem, a začali sme zhromažďovať videá. Tentokrát sme mali vyspelejších spevákov (Spev) A pár mladších spevákov.
(Video) Soprano: ♫ Upon my pillow ♫ ♫ Safe in bed ♫ EW: That's Georgie from England. She's only nine. Isn't that the sweetest thing you've ever seen?
(Video) Soprán: ♫ Na mojom vankúši ♫ ♫ V bezpečí postele ♫ EW: To je Georgie z Anglicka. Má len deväť rokov. Nie je zlatá?
Someone did all eight videos -- a bass even singing the soprano parts. This is Beau Awtin. (Video) Beau Awtin: ♫ Safe in bed ♫
Niekto spravil všetkých deväť videií. Bas dokonca naspieval soprán. Toto je Beau Awtin. (Video) Beau Awtin: ♫ V bezpečí postele ♫
EW: And our goal -- it was sort of an arbitrary goal -- there was an MTV video where they all sang "Lollipop" and they got people from all over the world to just sing that little melody. And there were 900 people involved in that. So I told the singers, "That's our goal. That's the number for us to beat." And we just closed submissions January 10th, and our final tally was 2,051 videos from 58 different countries. Thank you. (Applause) From Malta, Madagascar, Thailand, Vietnam, Jordan, Egypt, Israel, as far north as Alaska and as far south as New Zealand.
EW: A náš cieľ - bol to pomyselný cieľ - v jedom MTV videu všetci spievali "Lollipop." Ľudia z celého sveta spievali tú krátku melódiu. 900 ľudí sa do toho zapojilo. Tak som povedal spevákom: "To je náš cieľ. Musíme to prekonať." 10. januára sme prijali posledné video. Dokopy sme ich mali 2,051. Z 58 rôznych krajín. Ďakujem. (Potlesk) Z Malty, Madagaskaru, Thajska, Vietnamu, Jordánska, Egyptu, Izraelu, Aljašky a Nového Zélandu.
And we also put a page on Facebook for the singers to upload their testimonials, what it was like for them, their experience singing it. And I've just chosen a few of them here. "My sister and I used to sing in choirs together constantly. Now she's an airman in the air force constantly traveling. It's so wonderful to sing together again!" I love the idea that she's singing with her sister. "Aside from the beautiful music, it's great just to know I'm part of a worldwide community of people I never met before, but who are connected anyway." And my personal favorite, "When I told my husband that I was going to be a part of this, he told me that I did not have the voice for it." Yeah, I'm sure a lot of you have heard that too. Me too. "It hurt so much, and I shed some tears, but something inside of me wanted to do this despite his words. It is a dream come true to be part of this choir, as I've never been part of one. When I placed a marker on the Google Earth Map, I had to go with the nearest city, which is about 400 miles away from where I live. As I am in the Great Alaskan Bush, satellite is my connection to the world."
Takisto máme stránku na Facebooku pre spevákov a ich vyznania, aké to pre nich bolo. Zopár som vybral. "So sestrou sme zvykli spievať v zboroch. Teraz pracuje ako letec a stále cestuje. Je skvelé s ňou zase spievať!" Páči sa mi, že spieva so sestrou. "Okrem nádhernej hudby, je skvelé vedieť, že som súčasťou svetovej komunity ľudí, ktorých som nikdy, nestretla, ale ktorí sú aj tak prepojení." A moja najobľúbenejšia hláška: "Keď som povedala manželovi, že sa tohto chcem zúčastniť, povedal, že na to nemám hlas." Som si istý, že ste také niečo počuli mnohí. Aj ja. "Tak ma to zranilo, že som si poplakala, ale niečo vo mne to chcelo urobiť napriek jeho slovám. Môj sen sa stal skutočnosťou vďaka tomuto zboru, keďže som nikdy v nijakom nebola. Keď sa pozriete na Google Earth, najbližšie mesto je asi 400 míľ od môjho domova. Keďže bývam na Aljaške, moje jediné spojenie so svetom je satelit."
So two things struck me deeply about this. The first is that human beings will go to any lengths necessary to find and connect with each other. It doesn't matter the technology. And the second is that people seem to be experiencing an actual connection. It wasn't a virtual choir. There are people now online that are friends; they've never met. But, I know myself too, I feel this virtual esprit de corps, if you will, with all of them. I feel a closeness to this choir -- almost like a family.
Dve veci ma veľmi zaujali. Poprvé, ľudia pôjdu tak ďaleko, ako sa len dá, aby sa navzájom našli. Na technológii nezáleží. Podruhé, zdá sa, že títo ľudia majú skutočné spojenie. Nebol to virtuálny zbor. Títo ľudia sú teraz priateľmi, hoci sa nikdy nestretli. Ja sám k nim cítim akúsi spolupatričnosť, ak sa to tak dá nazvať. Mám k tomu zboru blízko. Takmer ako k rodine.
What I'd like to close with then today is the first look at "Sleep" by Virtual Choir 2.0. This will be a premiere today. We're not finished with the video yet. You can imagine, with 2,000 synchronized YouTube videos, the render time is just atrocious. But we do have the first three minutes. And it's a tremendous honor for me to be able to show it to you here first. You're the very first people to see this. This is "Sleep," the Virtual Choir.
Rád by som dnes zakončil prvým náhľadom na "Spánok" od Virtuálneho Zboru 2.0. Dnes bude mať premiéru. Ešte sme nedokončili video. Viete si predstaviť, že zladiť 2000 YouTube videí je skutočne náročné. Zatiaľ máme prvé tri minúty. A je to pre mňa úžasná pocta ich tu prvýkrát ukázať. Ste prví, čo to uvidia. Tu je "Spánok" od Virtuálneho Zboru.
(Video) Virtual Choir: ♫ The evening hangs ♫ ♫ beneath the moon ♫ ♫ A silver thread on darkened dune ♫ ♫ With closing eyes and resting head ♫ ♫ I know that sleep is coming soon ♫ ♫ Upon my pillow, ♫ ♫ safe in bed, ♫ ♫ a thousand pictures fill my head ♫ ♫ I cannot sleep ♫ ♫ my mind's aflight ♫ ♫ and yet my limbs seem made of lead ♫ ♫ If there are noises in the night ♫
Video Zbor: ♫ Večer sa vznáša ♫ ♫ Popod mesiac ♫ ♫ Strieborná niť na stmavnutej dune ♫ ♫ S privretými očami a klesnutou hlavou ♫ ♫ Viem, že spánok prichádza ♫ ♫ Na mojom vankúši ♫ ♫ V bezpečí postele ♫ ♫ Tisíc obrázkov mi naplní myseľ ♫ ♫ Nemôžem spať ♫ ♫ Myseľ mi blúdi, ♫ ♫ I keď končatiny mi oťaželi ♫ ♫ Ak v noci počuť zvuky ♫
Eric Whitacre: Thank you very, very much. Thank you. (Applause) Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.
Eric Whitacre: Ďakujem veľmi pekne. Ďakujem. (Potlesk) Ďakujem veľmi pekne. Ďakujem Vám.
(Applause)
(Potlesk)