Canadian youth orchestra responds to off-key auto commercial: “They should have called us”

“The New Brunswick Youth Orchestra has a message for automobile manufacturer Infiniti. If they needed musicians who knew how to play, ‘they should have called us,’ ” writes Aidan Cox in Friday’s (4/22) CBC News (Canada). “It’s a message straight from orchestra president Ken MacLeod during a 60-second video his organization released on Wednesday in response to a commercial by Infiniti, which … [features] members of a youth orchestra playing a painfully off-key version of Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra.… In the [NBYO’s] video, titled An INFINITY of Young Talent, MacLeod steps out of an SUV and walks up to the entrance of the Imperial Theatre in Saint John, while the same song used in the Infiniti commercial plays in the background. ‘Have you seen the new Nissan-Infiniti ad?’ MacLeod asks. ‘Can you imagine? A big company like that couldn’t find a youth orchestra to play the music. They should have called us. The New Brunswick Youth Orchestra.’ As he opens the door, … members of the NBYO are playing a seemingly flawless rendition of the iconic composition…. MacLeod said he hopes the video sends the message that youth of all levels of skill and talent should be encouraged to play music.”