The Global Orchestra – play your part for the planet by combining creativity and technology

Charlie Chan & Justin Baird

April 3, 2018 at 2:00 P.M. in the Pearl Young Theater

Abstract

The Global Orchestra’s “Concert for the Planet” incorporates music, education, creativity, and technology to create a large-scale event that connects communities around the world. Global Orchestra does this through a novel video streaming mechanism called Conductor-Cam. Conductor-Cam allows participants to play along with the host orchestra at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels, bringing everyone together through the global language of music. An orchestra of over 70 NASA Langley employees and community members participated in the 2015 Global Orchestra and will do so again for the 2018 event on Saturday, March 24. In this lecture series, founders Charlie Chan and Justin Baird will share their story, from the early trials and experiments, through to delivering a live concert from the Sydney Opera House streaming to hundreds of venues around the world. They’ll also discuss their work integrating a production line robot “Baxter” into the orchestra.

Speakers

Charlie Chan is artistic director of the Global Orchestra; whose ambition is to use technology and music to connect people from all corners of the globe. In 2015, the Global Orchestra presented Concert for the Planet during Earth Hour. Over 100,000 participants in more than 200 locations played Holst’s Planet Suite simultaneously, following the live stream from the Sydney Opera House via Conductor-Cam. Charlie is a composer for feature films, TV series, documentaries, dance and theatre productions, with myriad screen and stage musical credits and several critically celebrated solo albums.

Justin Baird brings over twenty years of management and high-tech experience, in areas ranging from research and development engineering, analog and digital signal processing, embedded systems development, high speed digital networks, large scale entertainment systems, mobile and web application deployment, and interactive multimedia installation technologies. At Accenture, Justin’s focus is on bringing innovative solutions to Accenture and its clients in areas ranging from artificial intelligence, machine learning, mechatronics and robotics, and immersive experiences.