TODAY in Australia!

This morning the PS22 Chorus appeared on the Australian TODAY Show, marking their first nationwide TV appearance in the land down under! Yesterday I took a trip into Reuters Studio in Manhattan with my folks (pictured above) to pre-record the segment. You can see the interview here.

Travis Garland Joins The PS22 Chorus!!

After the amazing rendition that we posted the other day of the chorus singing Travis Garland's "Believe," today the man himself stopped by PS22 to personally thank the kids for the beautiful job they did on his song!! While there, of course we put him to work....

Right before Travis arrived, the chorus and I were working on an original song of mine called, "Sing Yourself." As we were only missing a soloist for the second verse to make the song complete, we asked Travis to lend a hand! And man, not only can this guy really sing, he's also a great sport! Dude literally took less than 5 minutes to learn his part before we recorded. Personally speaking, it was an incredible honor to have him join us on this tune in particular....

One of the coolest surprises of the day was getting a personal video message from Perez Hilton, which gave us ALL a fantastic boost of inspiration to get our little party started! Check it out below!!

Big thanks to Travis, Perez, and all involved in helping this another unforgettable day in the history of PS22 Chorus! Check out some more pics below, courtesy of our dear friend Ms. Laurie (who also shot the video footage!)

Travis & Azaria

Performing "Believe"

Travis, Mr. B, with Travis's management Tony and Joe Simpson (Jessica & Ashlee's dad!)

BELIEVE

Here it is -- PS22 Chorus of 2010's end of the year thank you to the man who gets the lion's share of the credit for putting our kids on the map, Perez Hilton. The song is "Believe" by Travis Garland, who made his illustrious solo career TV debut on American Idol last week. Travis was formerly a member of the boy band, N.L.T., and we think he's on his way to bigger and better things!

Perez, thank you for everything you've done to help impact and change the lives of hundreds of our students throughout the past four years that you've been supporting us. We are truly indebted......

And lastly, major props to the kids, most notably fourth grader, Azaria, who makes her first solo with the PS22 Chorus something unforgettable!

UPDATE: Thanks again to Travis Garland & Perez Hilton for their very kind words on their blog/Twitter/Facebook pages! See screencaps below!

UPDATE 2: Congrats again to the chorus and Azaria for the amazing YouTube Honors earned on their latest viral hit! (See below.)

PS22 on French TV's Taratata

Thanks to the anonymous commenter on our previous Phoenix post for letting us know about this French TV interview of the band. They show a clip of the kids singing Phoenix's song Lisztomania at approximately 11:30, and the band says some more great things (in French) about the PS22 Chorus. Direct translation anyone?

UPDATE: Thanks to Amandine for the translation below! SO cool to hear the kids may be getting visitors soon!

Host: "There is a sequence we found on the web, that you of course saw, but that's when we understand that a song entered for good in the culture and everyday life. Watch and you'll understand"

(Youtube video of PS22 plays)

Host: "It's a chorus from New York. 5th grade students from Graniteville with a clever music teacher because first he understood internet's strength because he does it regularly with U2 or Coldplay; but finding your songs sang by kids, it must have been... must have given you goosebumps, no?"
Phoenix : "We cried. We're going to go see them, we know where they are"
Host: "You're going to see the class?"
Phoenix : "We're going to go to the school, yes"
Host: "It's going to be great! I hope you're going to film it and put it on your website"
Phoenix: "We'll see"
Host: "It's going to be beautiful"

I Don't Know Why

Here is one of my favorite songs from back in high school and still to this day, Shawn Colvin's "I Don't Know Why" cowritten by John Leventhal. The PS22 Chorus of 2010 does a rather fantastic job of it, and Clarissa is just lovely on the solo! Another beautiful voice comes to light!

PS22 Chorus in Phoenix Documentary!

Yesterday, the Creators Project website released an online documentary about the band Phoenix, whose amazing song, "Lisztomania," was covered by the PS22 Chorus of 2010 a few months back to great effect! It's fantastic to see PS22 included in this new documentary, and to hear the great things the band had to say about the kids! Check it out above.... (The PS22 footage starts at 4:10).

The Honorary Jarrod Gorbel

This afternoon, the PS22 Chorus of 2010 got a visit from Jarrod Gorbel, former frontman of Brooklyn indie band, The Honorary Title, to make some music! Once things got started, the kids and I were all blown away by his voice and musicianship, and of course this great song! But the real shock of the day came at the realization that Jarrod and I went to the same college and used to hang! Small world, eh?

But no real shock whatsoever at this point in just how quickly the kids picked up the song. They literally learned their part in about 15 minutes flat before Jarrod arrived. And the man himself is a true and obvious talent -- I remember back at school being extremely envious of his Ani DiFranco-like guitar skills. All in all, a great afternoon of solid music-making!

One more video from this collaboration coming soon.....

PS22 Chorus on OPRAH!! ('nuff said!)

TWO PS22 Chorus TV Appearances This Week

Look out for PS22 Chorus footage to be shown on Good Morning America this morning, and on OPRAH tomorrow!!! GMA will be showing a clip of our time with Common & Queen Latifah when the two make guest appearances. And Oprah will be showing a PS22 Chorus video on Tuesday, during an episode about America's most talented kids! It's shaping up to be quite a week!! More to come....

UPDATE: Check out the GMA footage below! (They start talking about PS22 and "Champion" about 1:45 seconds into the interview.)

IRON MAN

Seemed like the right time to bring this one out.... Here are the kids singing the classic "Iron Man," and showing that the PS22 Chorus can headbang with the best of 'em!

PS22 Is Full of Love!

Here is a wonderful song from the inimitable Bjork called "All Is Full Of Love", which is given the full PS22 Chorus treatment! Big props to Kaitlynn, and guest vocalist, third-grader Juan, who both do a fantastic job on their respective solo parts!

Thanks as always to Ms. Lisa for the great video! (And the post pic too!)