VOA标准英语2011--Virtual Choir Offers Global Harmony

Virtual Choir¹ Offers Global Harmony

American composer Eric Whitacre is a star in choral circles. His music is performed by amateur and professional choirs². Now he's unveiled his Virtual Choir 2.0 on YouTube. It features over 2,000 singers from around the world.
"It all started with this video. A young girl named Britlin Losee, who was 17 at the time, posted to YouTube a video of herself singing the soprano part to a piece of mine called "Sleep," says Whitacre, explaining how he came up with the concept of a virtual choir. "I was just so moved by the way she was singing and the look on her face. She looked directly into the camera. And she had such a pure and sweet tone. And it struck me. I thought, 'God, if I can get 50 people to do this all at the same time, from around the world, post their videos and then we could cut them together, we could make a virtual choir.'"
So Whitacre experimented. He rounded up singers, had them sing individually into webcams while listening to a piece of his on headphones, and had a technician cut the videos together. The experiment was so successful, Virtual Choir 1.0 was born.
Marc Royce
Virtual Choir composer Eric Whitacre
For that, 185 singers from 12 countries sang Whitacre's "Lux Aurumque."
"My biggest hope was that we'd get people to sing very soft and more full in different places. And it really worked," he says.
Virtual Choir 1.0 got almost two million hits on YouTube. So Whitacre conceived a followup - Virtual Choir 2.0 - an even larger global project. When it was announced, singers were directed to download the music for 'Sleep' and follow instructions via a YouTube video.
Whitacre knows it's a strange process. "There's this incredible leap of faith, on the part of the singer, where you're just hoping, sort of, beyond hope, that somehow this works, right? That you'll do your little bit for this and then months later find out, 'Oh, O.K., that I helped make this happen.'"
The final video featured more than 2,000 singers from 58 countries.
Britlin Losee, the young woman whose video triggered the whole project, was shocked to see it.
"Amazing," she says. "I still can't even explain it. What I just learned from the entire experience is that when you do something really pure out of your heart, you know, not wanting anything in return, you know, miraculous³ things can happen."
Whitacre's Virtual Choir 2.0, featuring his piece "Sleep," is now on YouTube.

1 choir   

n.唱诗班，唱诗班的席位，合唱团，舞蹈团；v.合唱

参考例句：

• The choir sang the words out with great vigor.合唱团以极大的热情唱出了歌词。
• The church choir is singing tonight.今晚教堂歌唱队要唱诗。

2 choirs   

n.教堂的唱诗班( choir的名词复数 )；唱诗队；公开表演的合唱团；（教堂）唱经楼

参考例句：

• They ran the three churches to which they belonged, the clergy, the choirs and the parishioners. 她们管理着自己所属的那三家教堂、牧师、唱诗班和教区居民。 来自飘（部分）
• Since 1935, several village choirs skilled in this music have been created. 1935以来，数支熟练掌握这种音乐的乡村唱诗班相继建立起来。 来自互联网

3 miraculous   

adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的

参考例句：

• The wounded man made a miraculous recovery.伤员奇迹般地痊愈了。
• They won a miraculous victory over much stronger enemy.他们战胜了远比自己强大的敌人，赢得了非凡的胜利。