Four youth orchestras from Thailand and five conductors celebrated Beethoven's birthday and the launch of a year-long Beethoven celebration with a "reverse flash mob" — one where the music starts in a single place and expands to fill all the available space — in this case the Bangkok Art and Culture Center.
The Beethoven X Project will have the youth orchestras perform all nine Beethoven symphonies plus accompany the Missa Solemnis in Bangkok's International Choir Festival. The concerts will be spread out over the year and will feature the five conductors doing different symphonies.
I came up with this idea because flash mobs are done to death these days — I wanted to send the message that Beethoven, one deaf guy born 250 years ago, overcame everything — and his music has expanded to fill our universe.