MSI Computer, recently donated a number of MSI Wind U100 Netbooks to the Virginia Tech Music Department to help create the first ever Linux-based laptop orchestra.

The diverse group is made up of theater arts, political science, engineering, biology and math majors and called the L2Ork, in honor of the open source software used by the group.

Each member of the orchestra follows directional cues and observes their “scores” on the Wind screens and plays virtual instruments with Wiimotes and nunchucks. The students can control their instrument’s loudness, pitch, sound color, and about any other direction given by the composer. The orchestra members are also all networked together so each member knows exactly what every other member is doing.

We place a great value on education and understand the important role computers play in the classroom,” said Andy Tung , Director of Sales for MSI North America. ”It was an honor to have the opportunity to help the students at Virginia Tech create their orchestra.

The affordability of the MSI Wind netbooks and the free operating system makes laptop orchestras an affordable extracurricular activity for school age children. This spring Virginia Tech will partner with Music Lab at the Jefferson Center in Roanoke VA to create a five-station orchestra. Initially the new program will be open to fifth graders from local Girls’ and Boy’s clubs.

MSI’s Educational Reseller Program allows schools to purchase MSI computers at a discounted price from local resellers. MSI even offer’s a 30 day free trial period for the school to test the new notebooks and touch screen desktops to make sure the systems are a good fit with their students.