Richard and Eric discuss the now famous Virtual Choir phenomenon and its varying ramifications on not only the choral community but on greater social society. In their critique, they attempt the impossible by unifying seemingly disparate ideas of thinkers and philosophers such as Debord, Baudrillard, Eco, Kierkegaard, all in too short of a time. Is the virtual choir actually a choir? Does the virtual choir share aspects of previously seen social experiments in the recent past? Are there claims the virtual choir makes that could be seen as problematic or illusory? Trying to look deeply at this very popular social art-form proves to be not only challenging but enlightening.
All tagged eric whitacre
In what amounts to a double episode, Richard and Eric are joined by special guest Dr. Jeremiah Cawley, and plunge into the deep end of the pool to discuss the state of criticism and its usefulness in the choral world. What is a critic and what is good criticism? Do we as a culture have a growing distaste, distrust, or maybe misunderstanding of what criticism is? Are there sources of good, impactful criticism that can be relied upon in the choral community? What is the future of this increasingly rare form of art?