Funding for Whitacre's Virtual Choir 4 reaches halfway

11 January 2013, 12:43 | Updated: 11 January 2013, 12:49

Virtual Choir 4 has reached $50,000 in donations, halfway to its target of $100,000.

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir 4 project has reached the halfway point. The project, which encourages amateur singers to submit videos of themselves singing a specific composition to be then made into an immense online choir, is now in its fourth incarnation and requires $100,000 to launch.

Currently, the funding (which has been organised and publicised via the Kickstarter fundraising website) has just reached $50,000, with 20 days to go until pledging closes. Backers are invited to donate money in return for a range of different packages, ranging from $5 up to $10,000.

A $25 donation will land you a copy of the digital presentation of the Virtual Choir including photographs, sketches and lyrics and a credit on the choir's website. $7,500 will get you Eric's backstage pass from the 2012 Grammy Awards, alongside a host of other goodies.

The highest pledge of $10,000 will get the lucky donor Eric's own conducting baton, used to conduct his own Paradise Lost at Carnegie Hall. You can see a full list of the various pledging packages at the project's Kickstarter page. You can also view the project's video below: