London Philharmonic Orchestra to record national anthems for Olympic medal ceremonies

London, Apr 16 (ANI): The London Philharmonic Orchestra would reportedly record the national anthems of all 205 countries participating in the 2012 London Olympics.

Composer, conductor and cellist Philip Sheppard will take charge of the recordings, which will be played at the medal and welcoming ceremonies, the BBC reports.

It is expected that musicians would take 50 hours of work to complete the recording, which will begin in May, at London's Abbey Road Studios.

Sheppard, who has been working on the anthems since October, has said he hopes that working at the iconic studios will help bring "creativity" into the works.

Sheppard also said that the duration of each anthem should be up to a minute, and condensing them is a big challenge to the musicians.

"Uruguay is about six-and-a-half minutes long, so there comes a point where one has to chop it down, without offending the country in question. But Uganda is only nine bars, so I had to come up with a way of making it last longer without it being repetitive," he said. (ANI)