YouTube orchestra wows at Carnegie Hall

NEW YORK, April 16 (UPI) -- Musicians from 33 countries brought together by YouTube performed as a symphony orchestra at New York's famed Carnegie Hall Wednesday night.

The New York Daily News said the performers earned a standing ovation from the sold-out crowd assembled to see the orchestra, whose members auditioned through YouTube and met for the first time five days ago. The group of nearly 100 musicians performed pieces by Bach, Brahms and Mozart at the concert.

"It's been like a summit conference and a scout jamboree, with elements of speed dating," conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, who directed the orchestra, told the Daily News.

Thomas quipped that the new way to get to Carnegie Hall is to "upload, upload, upload" rather than the age old adage of "practice, practice, practice."

The mix of professional and amateur musicians, who range in age from 15 to 55, were selected by judges representing the world's greatest orchestras, the newspaper said.