YouTube orchestra to play Internet Symphony No 1

The auditions are over. The first YouTube Symphony Orchestra - selected by viewers of the website - will consist of more than 90 musicians from some 30 countries.

More than 3,000 videos were submitted by amateur and professional musicians from 70-plus countries. Musicians from professional orchestras including the London and San Francisco symphonies and the Berlin, Hong Kong and New York philharmonic orchestras picked 200 finalists. The winners were then selected by voters on YouTube.

"We are excited about the talent, variety and adventurousness of the musicians who are coming together from around the world to form the YouTube Symphony Orchestra," conductor Michael Tilson Thomas said on Monday. "I am looking forward to our exploration of the incredible range of classical music's 1,200-year-old tradition which we will present in a unique way to our audience."