The folks at TED are on fire — hot on the heels of Abreu’s TED Prize speech, here’s the video of the astounding performance. Worth downloading in the high resolution version (go get Miro!) and watching on a bigger screen. In any case, save it for home; don’t give it partial attention at work. Astonishing.
TED Prize Performance Video
John's Blog 
Having conducted choirs and ensembles in a past lifetime as a classical composer, I can say the hard work for a conductor is not in the performance, but in the rehearsals. And the orchestra here is certainly nailing this stuff, particularly impressive is the oboe work — it’s a tough instrument to get clean angular melodic lines out of. And the flutes and piccolos are working their ar$$es off. And hey, the music has soul! Impressive indeed.
Those kids can shred!
For those who – like me – were wondering where to download the MP4 file, here is the page where you’ll find all you need:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/astonishing_performance_by_a_venezuelan_youth_orchestra_1.html
The HD MP4 file is http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/download/video/6092/talk/466 (just right click then “Save link as…”) and view it in Miro, QuickTime, whatever works for you. It’s 202 MB big, but it goes fast… I’m going to view it on my home theater now 🙂
Thanks for references