Laptop orchestras bridge the distance
A couple of dozen Stanford music students lie flat on their stomachs or kneel on cushions in a campus rehearsal space, eyes fixed on laptop computer screens.
The room fills with what sounds like a humming chorus of tuned water-bowls; actually, it's the computer-generated equivalent. Conductor Ge Wang, gesturing, seems to push the pulsing chorus from one side of the orchestra to the other, as the musicians stroke the keys of their MacBooks.
On Tuesday, they will perform - in real time, via the Internet, in front of a live audience at Stanford's Dinkelspiel Auditorium - with musicians from Beijing University, 6,000 miles distant. With the aid of giant video screens, both groups will hear, watch and play along with each other.
