YouTube Orchestra coming to Sydney Opera House

Google has announced that its 2011 "YouTube Symphony Orchestra" performance will be hosted at Sydney Opera House, after hosting its inaugural collaborative music event in 2009 at New York's Carnegie Hall.

YouTube Symphony Orchestra is an ensemble made up of both professional classical musicians and other musicians that audition on YouTube. After an audition process, the final orchestra collaborate on a musical work that fuses the classical and modern.

In 2009, entrants from around the globe joined a core of players from the London Symphony Orchestra to perform a work by composer Tan Dun. Lauren Brigden of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra was among the entrants to make the final cut.

In 2011, entrants will be asked to audition for one of 96 orchestra positions or one of four solo performers, performing a piece of music by American composer Mason Bates.  

Auditions open today and close November 28, 2010, for selection by January 11, 2011 and a performance at the Sydney Opera House on March 20, 2011.

Google has thrown some of its development weight behind the project - announcing a new 'augmented reality application' via which users can hold objects in front of their webcam to move notes up and down a musical score.

Google product marketing manager Lee Hunter said the application "allows people to create music even if you don't have an instrument."

At the launch event in Sydney today, Sydney Symphony Orchestra managing director Rory Jeffes contended that "the ultimate enhanced application is actually seeing live music."