Over a hundred musicians from all over the world have united to perform the classic IRON MAIDEN song “Fear Of The Dark”.
The idea came from Ulf Wadenbrandt, conductor of the Sweden Symphony Orchestra and principal guest conductor for the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra.
Wadenbrandt normally travels to towns and cities in many different countries to conduct musicians in a wide range of concerts. However, the global pandemic situation has put a halt to touring the world for uncertain period of time — something that affects others too.
“Many of my musical colleagues around the world are currently unable to play together and cannot perform for the public. So I reached out to many wonderful orchestral musicians, to see if we could play something together,” says Ulf.
Ulf has virtually been working around the clock recently (not least due to the many different time zones involved) to instruct and inspire musicians for the recording. More than 160 musicians from all over the world took part in recording a video together.
“I want to highlight how important music and culture are in these difficult times,” Ulf explains. “Music makes you feel good and helps to develop people. We need to show the world that we are needed and must get to play. I have gathered everyone from absolutely world class musicians and excellent music teachers to talented amateurs and students from music and cultural schools from all over the world. I want to show the value of diversity and emphasise how everyone is important in the ecosystem of music.”
Musicians from as far afield as the Dortmund Philharmonic to Brazil, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Argentina, China and the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra in New Zealand played together, as well as from many other orchestras across the globe.
For the video, an instrumental version of “Fear Of The Dark” was arranged for the symphony orchestra.
“This song has everything from nice melodic lines with lots of energy and a thumping tempo,” Ulf says. “It’s a magical arrangement that releases the orchestra’s energy and fantastic sound. IRON MAIDEN have quite simply written a great song that works perfectly for symphony orchestras and their wonderful timbre.”
