KWS Musicians Ian Whitman, Edwin Outwater In The Youtube Symphony
Wednesday night is the YouTube Symphony performance and Canada is representing big time. We’ve got 4-6 people (see explanation below) in the orchestra and one borrowed one getting some podium time. Not all of our orchestra member have posted an introduction video but special mention must go out to violinist Donovan Seidle for his excellent caricature of prairie supernerd.
The full list of participants can be found here.
Due our smallish population and rather young age, Canada has a rather amusing habit of claiming people as citizens when they do famous things. It seems that country of birth, physical citizenship papers or even long-term residence are of no consequence when determining whether an invention or idea is Canadian. All that is required is that the person responsible set foot in the country for more than 4 hours at some point in his or her lifetime. Conversely, if you were born in Canada and left while still a child never to return, you’re still ours. See Alexander Graham Bell, James Naismith, Gideon Sundback etc
In that spirit, there seem to be two Youtube Symphony members that are claimed as Canadian on the Youtube site (Moffat) or in the papers (Lopez).
And finally, some statistical fun facts:
Chances of a YTSO member being from America: roughly 2 in 5; Canada 1 in 19; Australia 1 in 31;
Chances of a YTSO horn player coming from Australia: 1 in 2
Country with the best odds of producing a YouTube Symphony Orchestra member based on population:
Latvia: 1 in 2 million
The Netherlands: 1 in 5 million
Canada: 1 in 6 million
Australia: 1 in 7 million
USA: 1 in 9 million
Special Bonus: Some excruciating coverage from Good Morning America. If it’s all too much, the performance starts at 3:00
