And the choir conductor there knew that I sang and invited me to come and join the choir.

I decided to write a piece for choir a couple of years later as a gift to this conductor who had changed my life.

Let's see another super conductor, a German super conductor. Herbert von Karajan, please.

But what about the conductor? What can you say the conductor was doing, actually?

It wasn't a virtual choir.

There is no orchestra conductor.

I call that the hidden choir.

This is Sleep, the Virtual Choir.

So please, wait for the conductor.

Let's see somebody else, a great conductor.

Let's try it again. Ooh, the TED choir.

Eric Whitacre A virtual choir 2,000 voices strong

He's the greatest young conductor in the world.

The same for the modern semi conductor industry.

You know, this little office of the conductor.

They don't often even look at the conductor.

Let's look at the next conductor, Richard Strauss.

This is Lux Aurumque sung by the Virtual Choir.

The conductor of an orchestra doesn't make a sound.

There, he grew as a violinist and as a conductor.

I feel a closeness to this choir almost like a family.

Richard Carter I'm Richard Carter, and this is the Sashimi Tabernacle Choir.

And again, I posted a conductor video, and we started accepting submissions.

In its essence, the orchestra and the choir are much more than artistic structures.

I am a conductor, and I'm here today to talk to you about trust.

In an audience as sophisticated as this one, that would be preaching to the choir.

It wasn't a bad debut for the TED choir, not a bad debut at all.

And once again, in Edinburgh with the wonderful African Children's Choir who I simply adore.

He became the conductor of Venezuela's junior orchestras, and today conducts the world's greatest orchestras.

My picture appears on the front of the CD but the conductor doesn't make a sound.

And because of that, then a lot of singers started saying, All right, what's Virtual Choir 2.0?

Choir I'm hooked on a feelin' I'm high on believin' That you're in love with me DD So Richard came up from Houston last year to visit us in Detroit here and show the wonderful Sashimi Tabernacle Choir.

What I'd like to close with then today is the first look at Sleep by Virtual Choir 2.0.

Now I should say, before that, what I did is I posted a conductor track of myself conducting.

It is a dream come true to be part of this choir, as I've never been part of one.

One father, who had initially balked at his daughter coming out in such a choir, now writes songs for them.

And about a week later, a friend of mine came to me and said, Listen, you've got to join choir.

Choir When you hold me in your arms DD This is all computer controlled in an old Volvo.

During the two hours of driving, the train conductor advised him for an hour, however it still had no results.

A few days after arriving, I met this wonderful, old conductor who started casting me in all of these roles.

They opened their scores, the conductor gave the downbeat, and boom, they launched into the Kyrie from the Requiem by Mozart.

Improbably, this LGBT singing choir has demonstrated how women are investing in tradition to create change, like alchemists turning discord into harmony.

He was the conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, and he's an unbeatable example for young musicians in Latin America and the world.

In a moving and madly viral video last year, composer Eric Whitacre led a virtual choir of singers from around the world. He talks through the creative challenges of making music powered by YouTube, and unveils the first 2 minutes of his new work, Sleep, with a video choir of 2,052. The full piece premieres April 7 .

And I find myself now in the unlikely position of standing in front of all of you as a professional classical composer and conductor.