Birds on the Wires

Reading a newspaper one morning, I saw this picture of birds perched on the electric wires. 5 wires. The same number of lines on a music staff. I cut out the photo, went to my piano and decided to try to compose a song, using the exact location of the birds as notes. I was just curious to hear what melody those tiny animals were creating. And the melody that came out was delicate and poetic. I made an orquestral arrangement and sent the piece to Paulo Pinto, the author of the photograph. I asked him the original photo, so I could produce a video with my idea, in a simple and didactic way. The 1 minute video quickly became a viral. The birds melody was everywhere in the world. I was interviewed  by radios, TVs and newspapers of France, Germany, USA, Japan etc. Two months later, I saw myself on the stage of the first Brazilian TED Talk, presenting the birds case. At the end of the speech, I played the music, accompanied by a small orchestra, synched to the video. The short performance received a standing ovation, fact that would be repeated many times, in speeches in my country and abroad. The main one, in the middle of Guggenheim museum in New York, with a sextet from the Juilliard School. It was the top coronation of this short piece, winner of the YoutubePlay Guggenheim, in 2010, presented in museums of NY, Venice, Bilbao and Berlin. In some way I can’t explain, those little birds touched minds and hearts of people from different genres, ages, countries and creeds.