By Jerad Gallinger

At first blush, the idea of YouTube becoming a patron of classical music seems a tad counterintuitive. To those versed in its most popular content, the world’s dominant video streaming site is known as the domain of the brief, the crass, and the weird, with a meme or two thrown in for good measure (not that that’s necessarily a bad thing—we love a good Rickroll as much as anyone). So it was bit of a surprise—albeit a pleasant one—when we learnt of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra (YTSO for short), a ninety-strong ensemble made up of the winners of an online audition and public voting process (conducted on YouTube, naturally) that concluded earlier this week.
Toronto viola player Yunior Lopez is one of the five Canadians chosen to be a part of the YTSO. A student at the Royal Conservatory of Music‘s Glenn Gould School, the twenty year-old has already worked in a professional orchestra in his hometown of Las Vegas, and eventually hopes to make a career out of his musical passion. Lopez told Torontoist that he took a passive approach to the contest and let his talent speak for itself. “I didn’t mention to any of my friends that I was doing it,” he said. “The voting I left up to people. I didn’t go around asking for votes. I just let it be.”
The members of the online orchestra will converge on Carnegie Hall in New York on April 12–15 to attend a classical music summit and perform celebrity composer Tan Dun‘s Internet Symphony No. 1, “Eroica” (seen above), a piece composed specifically for the YTSO. A mashup video of selected auditions will be premiered at Carnegie Hall on the final day of the event, and will be available on YouTube the next day.