Paly student uses YouTube to gain music recognition

Senior Florence Hsiao participates in online musical collaboration project, competition

posted January 26, 2009

by Ethan Plant of Campanile

Most people can remember the flying scenes of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, seeing actors jump across the screen while engaging in near impossible fighting maneuvers.

What most will not remember is the music that underlined those scenes and the man that created the music. The world renowned Chinese composer Tan Dun has now brought his music away from the big screen and onto one a bit smaller in size.

Accustomed to breaking barriers, YouTube has set in motion a plan to create the first ever collaborative online orchestra, which has been named YouTube Symphony. The project lets anyone over the age of 14 audition, from amateur musicians to professional musicians.

YouTube Symphony consists of two parts: a collaborative symphony and a talent competition. The collaborative piece will be done by YouTube, which is collecting hundreds of videos by musicians from around the world playing the same piece of music on different instruments.

Dun composed the collaborative piece and was inspired by "the spirit of today."

In part two; the talent competition, musicians submit an exposé of their own choice for judging. The winners are given an all expenses paid, three day trip to New York, where they will play at Carnegie Hall in front of a live audience.

The crux of the plan is to give those who would not necessarily get a chance to shine the ability to participate in the making of music history.

One musician who will be giving the competition a run for its money is Florence Hsiao, a Palo Alto High School senior. She has been playing the piano since she was five years old and the clarinet since she was nine.

"I take private lessons for both, and I play in the El Camino Youth Symphony," Hsiao said. "I have fallen in love with music and plan to do it for the rest of my life."

Hsiao believes that although the international competition leaves little room for success, there is no reason not to try.

"I have nothing to lose, and it seems fun to try," Hsiao said. "I mean the prize is too good not to try."

The project, which has gained international acclaim for its ground-breaking approach to the collaboration of music, seems to give less talented artists a slimmer chance of winning because of the competition's format. Because YouTube is a site that is totally geared toward providing for its users, the format has been set up in that way.

Whoever wishes to participate in the talent part must also submit his or her work to the collaboration part of the competition.

This rule gives participants of the competition who wish to compete in part one, usually people of lesser talent, smaller chances to qualify for either of the parts. This has yet to deter people who wish to submit their work.

Even though the format is geared to still give professionals an advantage, Hsiao still believes that the project is an extremely novel idea.

"It's the first online collaborative music project," Hsiao said. "It's such a large scale thing, not just a community or state project, but an international project that a bunch of different organizations are working on together."

The Web site, http://www.youtube.com/symphony gives easy directions for musicians to submit their work, which is a nice break from other confusing aspects of the Web site.

When people wish to prepare their music for part one, there are separate videos of Dun conducting viewers through 27 different instruments. These recordings give participants time to practice before submitting their final piece.

In the videos, Dun is facing the camera and conducting the video as if he is physically in front of musicians. He helps musicians move through the piece by cuing players and motioning dynamics changes.

People can practice the music with a silent video of Dun conducting or with the same video of the actual composition playing the background. However, YouTube does not give the viewer actual sheets of music to practice; it is all done by memorization.

Once participants of the competition are prepared and wish to submit, they will watch the same video of Dun as before, except this time, they will record themselves playing.