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28/02/2011 ArtsDB.net | The Performing Arts Dat…

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Featured Artist Eric Whitacre

Composer

Profile

Eric Whitacre, an accomplished composer, conductor and lecturer, is one of the most popular and performed composers of his generation. To date, his published works have received thousands of performances and have sold well in excess of one million copies worldwide. www.gigmag.co.uk/featuredProfile.ph… 1/4 28/02/2011 ArtsDB.net | The Performing Arts Dat…

In 2010 Eric created the ground-breaking Virtual Choir featuring 185 singers from 12 countries, and achieving over a million hits on YouTube in just two months. The new Virtual Choir of 2011, ‘Sleep’, has over 2,000 members from 58 countries, and will be posted in April.

Signed by Decca, Eric is one of a handful of composers to have secured an exclusive, long-term recording deal. His debut album, Light & Gold, released in October 2010, became the No 1 Classical Album in the US and UK charts within a week.

Later this year Eric will record his second album with Decca, a companion disc to Light & Gold following a London concert. The new disc will feature some of his most popular choral pieces including Cloudburst and This Marriage, in addition to several world premiere recordings.

Best known for his choral output, Eric also has a substantial volume of work for orchestra, most recently a commission from the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus which was premiered in London in 2010, in an all American programme which he conducted.

Forthcoming commissions include works for Julian Lloyd Webber and the Philharmonia Orchestra (premiere Royal Festival Hall, 14 April 2011), Rundfunkchor Berlin, The King’s Singers and Conspirare. Eric is also currently working on a feature film score with legendary film composer Hans Zimmer.

An avid lecturer, Eric was a Visiting Fellow and Composer in Residence at Cambridge University (Sidney Sussex College, UK) in 2010, addressed the UN Leader’s programme, and closes the first session of the TED conference in California in March 2011, speaking about his Virtual Choir.

His award winning musical, ‘Paradise Lost’ will be performed at the Auditorium Theatre at Roosevelt University, Chicago (March 2011) and at the Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles (June 2011), and songs from Paradise Lost will also be recorded for CD release in early 2012.