Tourism Australia Launches 'Making Tracks' Campaign to Showcase Musical Talent From YouTube Symphony Orchestra

LOS ANGELES, March 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The landscapes, people and experiences of Australia provide inspiration for Tourism Australia's new online marketing campaign, Making Tracks, which uses talented musicians to showcase the destination to an international audience of millions.  The Making Tracks campaign pairs up four international classical musicians from the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011 with a contemporary Australian musician and sent on a journey of discovery across Australia.

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The musical pairs were tasked with composing a piece of original music inspired by the trip. Each journey was filmed and is being told through a series of four short musical episodes broadcast on YouTube and via Tourism Australia's website.  Between them, the musicians travelled to every state and territory in Australia and participated in a range of experiences, which included surfing at Bondi beach, swimming with dolphins off Rockingham, enjoying the sun set over Uluru, penguin-spotting on Kangaroo Island, taking a helicopter flight over the Twelve Apostles and more!

Tourism Australia Managing Director Andrew McEvoy believes that the creative collaboration with YouTube will enable Tourism Australia to reach new markets by broadening its messaging and focusing on music and the arts.

"Making Tracks has given us a great opportunity to connect with a global audience in an innovative and engaging way. These eight musicians have enjoyed their very own magical musical mystery tour of Australia, and their journeys and musical compositions have opened up some of the country's most iconic destinations and experiences to a new online audience. It's been an amazing journey for everyone involved and a unique way to demonstrate why there really is nothing like Australia when it comes to inspiring creativity," said Mr. McEvoy.

The four classical musicians – from America (two), Taiwan and the UK - are part of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011, which will perform at the Sydney Opera House on March 20.

The first YouTube Symphony Orchestra saw more than 90 musicians from over 30 countries play a sold-out performance at Carnegie Hall in New York as well as attract 25 million views from 226 countries to the Symphony channel.

Musical pairings:

• Australian guitarist Luke Webb and English cellist Desmond Neysmith travelled through NSW and Western Australia
• Australian pianist and keyboardist Andy Bull and Taiwanese clarinetist Irene Chen travelled through South Australia and Northern Territory
• Australian guitarist Dewayne Everettsmith and American viola player Jasmine Beams travelled through Tasmania and Victoria
• Australian pianist and guitarist Stu Cullen and American bassoonist Sam Blair travelled through ACT and Queensland

To view the Making Tracks videos, visit http://www.australia.com/makingtracks.  

Photos of the journeys are available from Tourism Australia's image gallery at http://www.images.australia.com/

SOURCE Tourism Australia