2:19 p.m., March 11, 2008--Approximately 50 UD students, faculty and fans of classical music attended a live virtual performance by the Philadelphia Orchestra Friday afternoon, March 7, in the theatre of the Trabant University Center, thanks to the wonders of cutting-edge technology and an ongoing collaboration between UD's departments of information technology and music.

Streamed live from Verizon Hall in Philadelphia via Internet2, the concert, which featured surround-sound and nonstop close-ups of musicians' hands and expressions, also gave UD participants a chance to learn about a new way of experiencing music. To encourage this, audience members were asked, during periods of applause, to write their questions relating to Internet2 technology on blank index cards nestled inside each program. The questions would then be collected and discussed during the 20-minute intermission.

“Internet2 is the high-performance educational network that was originally set up for scientific purposes,” said Richard Sacher, associate director of IT-User Services at UD, “but gradually it is being used by disciplines in the humanities, as well.”

When Lloyd Shorter, assistant professor of music at UD, began to explore the technology's educational possibilities a few years ago, Sacher said, the partnership with the Department of Music was launched.

Following the lead of the New World Symphony--a training orchestra for student musicians aspiring to perform with world-class symphonies--UD began its Internet2 collaboration with the Philadelphia Orchestra in the spring of 2007 in order to expand national and international concert access and listening opportunities for UD students.

“UD was one of the schools involved in shaping this opportunity,” Sacher said, “and last spring the first test over Internet2 also went to listening audiences in Portugal and Sweden.”

Sacher added that the initial effort proved so successful that this year the Philadelphia Orchestra committed to having six concerts in its Global Concert Series for the 2007-08 season broadcast to broader--and for the most part, younger--audiences over Internet2. The next Philadelphia Orchestra concert that will be broadcast over Internet2 at UD will be at 8 p.m., Saturday, May 3, in Gore Recital Hall of the David and Louise Center for the Arts. That concert will feature Mahler's Symphony No 8.

Friday's performance, which featured The Flying Dutchman by Wagner, Eirene by Willi and Carmina Burana by Orff, used high-bandwidth technology for digital video transmission and Dolby 5.0 surround sound multicast via a sustained 15-megabits-per-second stream. The steams were sent to theatres around the world over both Internet2 and international high-bandwidth networks.

Article by Becca Hutchinson