Eric Whitacre’s World

Nov 5 2010 by Karen Price, Western Mail

He’s the Facebook phenomenon and YouTube sensation who is taking
classical music to the younger generations. But, as he prepares to
make his Welsh debut, Eric Whitacre tells Karen Price how his own
introduction to choral work was a fluke

As a teenager, Eric Whitacre loved performing in rock bands.
These days the father-of-one is still making music but now he’s a
world-renowned composer in the classical world.

At the age of 40, he’s become one of the most popular and
performed composers of his generation leading critics to dub him
“the hottest thing in choral music”.

And with his fashionable clothes, good looks and laid back
style, he’s certainly taking classical music to much younger
audiences.

In fact, Whitacre’s Facebook page has almost 43,000 fans and he
says around 35,000 of them are between the ages of 15 and 28. He’s
also a YouTube phenomenon, more on which later.