History was made as 17,562 singers from 129 countries sing to form the largest virtual choir ever – Virtual Choir 6.

“Sing, Sing gently always
Sing as one __”.

They sang passionately.

The Virtual Choir 6 ‘Sing gently’ was put founded and conducted by Grammy award winning American Composer and Conductor, Eric Whitacre. Eric Whitacre is known for his choral, orchestra and wind ensemble music.

ABOUT ERIC WHITACRE

In 2009, Eric Whitacre formed a virtual choir which premiered it’s first performance in March,2010 which is Virtual Choir 1 ‘Lux Aurumque’ and featured online performances by 185 singers. This year 2020, which is ten years after Virtual Choir 1, the Virtual Choir 6 ‘Sing Gently ‘ is rated the largest virtual choir ever.

Eric’s Virtual Choir has long been available for a while even before the pandemic crises which denied singers from coming together physically to sing. Many singers saw the virtual choir project as a hope to sing together and connect with other singers from all over the world. Some Nigerian Choristers were seen to be in the project as Choristers which include Amaka Lucy, Daniel Azubuine, Jessica Omelime and Grace Oforka.

The virtual choir also gave opportunity to those who sang with sign language. A creative video was created from this project weaving all members of the virtual choir into the shape of the world. Singing gently as one. The names of singers were also listed in the video. A beautiful sight to behold.

The Virtual Choir 6 is truly a masterpiece. Watch the video.

The Virtual Choir is a global phenomenon, creating a user-generated choir that brings together singers from around the world and their love of music in a new way through the use of technology.

Singers record and upload their videos from locations all over the world. Each one of the videos is then synchronised and combined into one single performance to create the Virtual Choir.

It began in 2009 as a simple experiment in social media when one young woman – a fan of Eric’s music – recorded a video of herself singing “Sleep” and shared it on YouTube.  Moved by the video, Eric responded by sending a call out to his online fans to purchase Polyphony’s recording, record themselves singing along to it, and upload the result. Eric was so impressed by the result that he decided to push the concept to the next level by recording himself conducting ‘Lux Aurumque’, asking Virtual Choir members to sing along to that and the first Virtual Choir was created. The VC has grown from 185 singers in VC1 to more than 8,000 singers, aged 4-87, from 120 countries in VC5.

With forty million views, the VC videos have featured on worldwide TV (ABC in the US and BBC in the UK) and as installations across the globe including the Millennium Bridge, London as part of the 2012 Olympics, the opening of the Titanic Belfast 100-year anniversary exhibition as well as at the closing plenary of Davos World Economic Forum at 2013. The VC has also been seen on the main stage of the revered TED conference, the Paley Center in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington DC at events for Google, UNICEF and the United Nations amongst others.

At TED 2013, Eric conducted a real-time Live Virtual Choir, performing live from 28 countries around the globe, alongside a 100 person-strong choir on stage, streamed live through Skype.

Later in 2013, Eric teamed-up with Disney to produce a song, “Glow”, written especially for World of Color – Winter Dreams show which premiered at Disney California Adventure® Park, California. 1473 singers, representing all 50 American States, submitted recordings, most of which were chosen, to be part of the World of Color Honor Choir.

The first-ever Virtual Youth Choir launched in 2014 featuring 2,292 young singers from 80 countries across the world. The film, in partnership with UNICEF, the world’s leading children’s organisation, premiered at the opening ceremony of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Eric launched Virtual Choir 6: Sing Gently in Spring 2020 as a response to the global pandemic. VC6 premiered on YouTube on July 19, 2020.

Music Director

I am Music Estate’s Music Director