Little Eric Whitacre Things

Virtual Choir 4: Bliss

I believe that some classical musicians can get very militant about the need for music-reading skills and theory, and I couldn’t disagree more: there are all kinds of ways to make and understand great music, and not all of them (even classical music, require music-reading skills). As someone who couldn’t fluently read music until I was in my mid-twenties I feel like I’m in a position to argue both sides. There are people with extraordinary musical gifts who truly struggle with reading music, especially if they come to it late in life, and all too often the classical community just casually dismisses them.

If there’s anything that I would like to do, it would be to turn people on to choral music. Choral music, and classical music in general, has to do with exposure. Ninety-five percent of the time, if you can just get someone in the room to see someone great, it’ll blow their minds. So, yes, if I can in any way become the gateway drug to choral music, that would be just fine.