[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7o7BrlbaDs[/youtube]

Via YouTube

Composer Eric Whitacre has put together the Virtual Choir.  He combined 185 seperate singers from 12 different countries recorded independently and combined them into a single performance.  All were conducted by the composer through a prerecorded conductor track on YouTube.

The Virtual Choir began in May 2009 as a simple experiment in social media, when Britlin Losee – a fan of Eric’s music – recorded a video of herself singing “Sleep” and shared it on YouTube.

After watching the video, Eric responded by sending a call out to his online fans to purchase Polyphony’s recording of “Sleep”, record themselves singing along to it, and upload the result.

Scott Haines generously volunteered to cut the video together. Eric was so impressed by the result that he decided to push the concept to the next level by recording himself conducting “Lux Aurumque”, and asked Virtual Choir members to sing along to that. Once again, Scott edited the audio and video and produced the beautiful results.

Via Eric Whitacre