HI-TRANSFER

YouTube and the Sydney Opera House developed a relationship during the YouTube Symphony Orchestra from our shared love of music, and we continue to look at ways to bring new music experiences to you. Victoria Doidge, Director of Marketing and Communications at the Sydney Opera House, is our guest blogger today to discuss their recent project.


Last year we set out to create a piece of content that would celebrate Sydney Opera House’s place in the global cultural community—one of the busiest performing arts centre in the world with 8.2 million visitors a year. Even from the inception of The House, master architect Jorn Utzon was committed to pushing boundaries, and as an example they had to invent a new crane to build his model.

So to create something in The House’s name, we sought to democratize the artists and the spirit of The House to as broad an audience as possible. This notion of accessibility and democratizing the content, like our partnership with Google on the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011, was critical to how we would measure success and why we chose to release the clip on YouTube.

We started with a song, Nick Cave’s The Ship Song, considered by many to be one of Australia’s truly great ballads. When we approached artists to volunteer to perform, we found hundreds who were excited to join: Neil Finn, Paul Kelly, Angus and Julia Stone, Martha Wainwright and Daniel Johns, to name a few. To bring it all together, we had these artists perform and accompanied by a full orchestra and opera choir.

For the final result director Paul Goldman created a voyeuristic journey through the venues, rehearsal rooms and back stages of the House. Paul has a unique skill for capturing the personal nuances of the many artists in this clip, and Elliot Wheeler complemented the video with a powerful soundtrack.



We’ve heard positive feedback from Australians at home and all over the world, telling us that it’s brought out pride and even tears. We’re thankful to be able to share this with you, and think our beloved Utzon would be pleased.

Victoria Doidge, Director of Marketing and Communications at the Sydney Opera House, recently watched “The Ship Song Project - Making Of.”

On March 20, the Grand Finale of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011 was held at Sydney Opera House and live-streamed to the world on YouTube During the week-long festival leading up to the finale, 101 musicians from 33 countries joined together for the first time—immersed in new cultural experiences, musical mentorship and performances in one of the world’s most iconic symbols of the arts.

During the three-and-a-half hour Grand Finale—and as people in different timezones awoke to re-broadcasts—the event was streamed 33 million times around the world to 189 countries. This included 2.8 million mobile live-streams—making it one of our biggest ever streaming events to date, on mobile and desktop. That means the event was streamed to nearly one-and-a-half times the entire population of Australia, where the event took place.

One of the goals of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra is to make classical music accessible; the total data transferred by the stream was a whopping 422 terabytes—the equivalent of 145 million MP3 files of classical music being emailed around the world.

The top 10 countries viewing the performance online were:
1. U.S.
2. Germany
3. Italy
4. France
5. Poland
6. Russia
7. Australia
8. U.K.
9. Brazil
10. Taiwan

Enormous thanks go to all our Symphony members who flew to Sydney from around the world and put their hearts and souls into an extraordinary performance. You surprised and moved people and had some fun along the way!

For the rest of you, you can read about the experience of YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011 cellist Mathisha Panagoda in a guest post on the YouTube Australia blog. And if you missed the Grand Finale, you can watch the full concert and highlights from the last week anytime at youtube.com/symphony.



Ed Sanders, Group Marketing Manager, recently watched “YouTube Symphony Sails highlights”.

What began with auditions from around the world uploaded to YouTube, millions of video views, and hours of rehearsals, finally comes to life this Sunday, March 20. It has been an extraordinary experience for the 101 winning musicians of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, and in just a couple of days their collaborative experience will come to life at Sydney Opera House.

Here’s a preview of what’s to come:


The week-long YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011 festival includes musical collaboration between orchestra members and world-class mentors, outdoor performances, local Aussie experiences, ensemble concerts and more. In just a few days, the creativity and technology that have powered this journey will literally light up Sydney Opera House—with animated visuals on the interior and exterior projections on the iconic sails, all synchronised to the music of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011’s performance.

You’re invited to experience this wonderful event, whether you’re inside Sydney Opera House, out around Sydney Harbour, or watching from your computer elsewhere in the world. The Grand Finale will be live-streamed on youtube.com/symphony beginning at 8:00pm Australian Eastern Standard time, and rebroadcast until the concert performance is uploaded in full, so tune in on Sunday, March 20.

Ernesto Soriano III, YouTube Australia, recently watched “YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011 Day 4 Highlights.”

This weekend, 101 musicians from more than 30 countries descended upon Sydney to form the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011. After a process of online auditions, public voting, and decisions by our orchestra partners and conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, the 97 orchestral musicians and four winning soloists are now hard at work to ensure their finale performance in Sydney on March 20 is nothing short of extraordinary.

This week marks the final phase of their journey: A seven-day festival of music, creativity and technology in and around one of the world’s most iconic symbol of the arts, Sydney Opera House. They’ve arrived from all over the world, speak multiple languages, and bring with them diverse musical and cultural insights from around the globe. And their days have been filled with experiences they’re sure to carry with them beyond Sydney — from the first rehearsal inside Sydney Opera House under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas, to a trip to the zoo to pet the marsupials and feed the giraffes.

Here’s a peek at how the week is shaping up: