KYLIE MINOGUE COMES TO PS22!

Get ready for something REALLY special!! Today the PS22 Chorus hosted a visit from the AMAZING Ms. Kylie Minogue, who made a special trip out to Staten Island to spend some time with the kids! Kylie has been a long time fan of PS22, tweeting about the kids on more than one occasion, so it's safe to say that everybody was extremely psyched for this collaboration!

Here the kids join Kylie on her mega-hit, "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" which we recreated PS22 style! Kylie blew us away with her incredible vocals on this acoustic rendition! The kids sound haunting and yet somehow are having a blast at the same time!

Here are the kids with Kylie as she gives her debut live performance of "Put Your Hands Up" from her latest album, APHRODITE! Quite an honor to be a part of this....

I can't say enough great things about Kylie! She is truly a wonderful spirit and completely enchanted us all, kids and grown-up types alike!! Speaking of which, big thanks to Mr. Eberle for his amazing guitar work and to Ms. Lisa for her spectacular video footage!! Also much thanks to Ms. Laurie (and again Ms. Lisa) for the fantastic pics!!

UPDATE (12-2-10): Big thanks to our pal, Perez Hilton, who posted about the amazing collaboration with Kylie! (These vids were also picked up by the good folks at Pink Is The New Blog!)

25 Million Views!!

Congrats to the kids of the PS22 Chorus for achieving over 25,000,000 views of their videos on our main YouTube Channel! Astounding!!

PS22 Gets A Standing O at The Golden Goggles 2010

On Monday, the PS22 Chorus performed at the Golden Goggles 2010, a fundraiser in the guise of an awards ceremony, honoring some of our nation's top swimmers! While there, the kids got high fives from some of the most renowned Olympic athletes, including Michael Phelps, Summer Sanders, & Ryan Lochte! Performing a total of 7 selections in all, the audience and honorees were treated to a healthy dose of PS22!! Check out the entire performance below from beginning to end, including the debut of the kids' newest song, "Walking On Sunshine" by Katrina & The Waves!

PS22 opens the show with Alicia Keys/Jay-Z "Empire State of Mind Pt. XXII"


"No One" / "One Day" Alicia Keys / Matisyahu


"Snow Angel" by Tori Amos (& a message from Summer Sanders!)


"Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina & The Waves


"Paparazzi" / "Living On A Prayer" by Lady Gaga / Bon Jovi

It was truly an honor to perform for some of our nation's most impressive athletes, and they in turn were equally enthusiastic about hearing the kids perform!! Olympic gold medal winner Natalie Coughlin even tweeted and Facebooked that her favorite part of the event was PS22!

Universal Sports wrote up the event, and dedicated the last 5 paragraphs to the chorus and their amazing performance! Check that out here.

Props go to all of our amazing soloists, including (in order of appearance) Brianna "Krispy Kreme," Renee, Denise, Marquis, Kayla, & Azaria! Big thanks to Ms. Lisa for all the amazing videos, and to Ms. Laurie & Mrs. Panzella for the great pics on this post! Also thanks to Mr. Eberle for joining in on the guitar!

Greyson Chance Goes Back To 5th Grade!

Yesterday, the young musical phenomenon Greyson Chance made a surprise visit to the PS22 Chorus of 2011!! We had him pose as "Brian," the son of Ms. Laurie when he came, and I quickly broke into a version of "Paparazzi" by Lady Gaga before the (majority of) group knew what I was up to! (The chorus only learned their part earlier that afternoon, and actually did remarkably well!!) Midway through the song, Greyson pushed me off the piano and broke into his brilliant version of the song! Needless to say, the kids went duly berzerk when they finally realized (or had confirmed) what was going on!! Sarah's & Dominique's reactions alone make this video well worth the watch!!

The next video is the real piece d'resistance, and is a truly astounding collaboration of young talent! The PS22 Chorus join forces with Greyson to recreate his single, "Waiting Outside The Lines" and words cannot do it justice! It's great to see the mutual admiration that's going on throughout the performance! The kids truly inspired each other to create this stunning and sincerely expressed rendition. We at PS22 are utterly impressed by Greyson Chance and know that he's bound for success of major proportion!

Big thanks to Greyson, his management (and mom!), and to Steinway for furnishing us with a piano for the occasion! Also thanks to Craig Hatkoff for helping us out of our piano jam!! And the "as always" thanks go to Ms. Lisa for her unbelievable filming, and Ms. Laurie, Ms. Kaufmann & Mrs. Johnson for the pics!!

UPDATE: Check out the awesome tweet from Greyson about his visit!

UPDATE 2: Thanks to Greyson & PS22's mutual compadre, Perez Hilton, for posting the performance on his blog!

Snow Angel

From the beautiful "Christmas" album by Tori Amos called MIDWINTER GRACES, here is the chorus performing the simply heavenly "Snow Angel" in preparation for the holidays. This one kills me, so hauntingly beautiful. Loving Marquis on the bongos, Mr. Eberle on guitar and the particularly angelic sounds of the PS22 Chorus of 2011 here! Simply lovely, and captured to perfection by Ms. Lisa!

UPDATE: Thanks to our fantastic friend and supporter, Perez Hilton, for tweeting about the kids' new Tori Amos cover, and for the kind words!

PS22, Matisyahu & DP Dave Holmes at the 92nd Street Y

On March 16, 2010, the PS22 Chorus gave an epic performance of "On Nature" & "One Day" with the great Matisyahu at 92nd Street Y! (Click here to see the rehearsal versions with Matis inside the PS22 auditorium!) Needless to say, I had been dying to get ahold of this performance ever since, and was ecstatic to finally receive a copy from Matisyahu's manager when the kids performed with Matis last month at the ONEXONE Gala! Not only is it always a thrill to see and hear the kids professionally recorded, this particular performance featured the kids at their best with not only the genius of Matisyahu, but also accompanied by DP Dave Holmes of The Dub Trio on acoustic guitar! Playing with him and Matis was an inspiration, and I think we all enjoyed improvising our respective parts and bouncing off of each other's ideas.

We were actually only slated to do "One Day" for this performance, but we all recognized magic was happening on "On Nature" at the rehearsal earlier that day (footage previously posted). Matis was cool enough to insist on us doing that one as well! PS22 Chorus member Messale, who actually was a Matisyahu fan already, spontaneously stepped in to sing with Matis at the rehearsal, a bit unsure of the words, but sounding awesome! So on the bus ride to the event later that afternoon, I had him listening over and over to the first verse on my iPod, so he could have a moment with Matis. And what a moment it was!

Soloist Leah was at her best on "One Day," and she truly brought the house down!! Her voice never sounded better and the entire chorus was just spot on! I don't know if there's a song the PS22 Chorus enjoys singing more than this one, and I think that really comes across in this video. All in all, this was just one of those performances where everything came together perfectly, so deepest thanks to 92nd Street Y and of course to Matisyahu & his management for giving us permission to post these two videos!

PS22 Sings For The Veterans

The PS22 Chorus made their second appearance for the Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America, this time at their 4th Annual Gala at Gotham Hall in Manahattan! The kids opened the event with a bang after being introduced by NBC anchor Brian Williams, who apparently is a pretty big PS22 Chorus fan himself! (Before the kids took the stage he told me how much he loved the PS22 Chorus version of "Living On A Prayer" which he had already seen on YouTube!) So here is the PS22 Chorus of 2011 singing "One Day" by Matisyahu, led by the extraordinary Denise, and "Living On A Prayer" by Bon Jovi led by the equally extraordinary Azaria! The kids really worked it out and the chorus added some extra touches to the arrangements for this special performance.

Thanks to Paul Rieckhoff for having us back to pay honor to the men and women who have served and continue to serve our country. And thanks as always to Ms. Lisa for her beautiful filming, and Ms. Laurie for the beautiful pics that accompany this post.

High Honors!

Congrats to the PS22 Chorus for taking over YouTube this weekend!! The kids' amazing new cover of "Living On A Prayer" and their amazing collaboration with Judy Torres has brought our YouTube Channel to the #4 Most Viewed Musicians Channel this weekend! Unfortunately YouTube is currently experiencing some glitches, so we don't know the honors that the "Living On A Prayer" vid has no doubt achieved. But with over 50,000 hits on its debut weekend in addition to the incredible YouTube Channel Honors, there is no question the PS22 Chorus is still going strong! Check out the honors at the bottom of the screencap below.

PS22 Joins Judy Torres at 25th Annual Freestyle Concert at The Taj Mahal!

The kids of the PS22 Chorus were the surprise guests last night at Vito Bruno's 25th Anniversary of Freestyle Concert at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City tonight! The kids were specifically requested by Judy Torres to join her on stage for a ballad version of her freestyle hit, "No Reason To Cry." The version was inspired by the one we created with her back in 2003! The piano arrangement for this performance was based on that classic collaboration (completely honored!), and I fleshed out the vocal arrangement this time for the chorus to really showcase the incredible talent of both Judy and the kids! The performance was a definite showstopper!! In addition, the kids were able to watch the soundcheck of several of the other performers that evening, including George Lamond & K7/TKA! Major thanks to Judy for including us on her special night, and as you can tell from the kids' messages on the bus footage at the end of the vid, we ALL adore this woman to pieces!

Big thanks to Ms. Lisa for filming the performance, and Ms. Laurie for the pics on this post! Also thanks to Mr. Eberle for sharing in the festivities!

Judy Torres backstage with PS22

PS22 Chorus with K7/TKA
PS22 Chorus with George Lamond

PS22 Chorus & Ms. Kim with Jonathan Cheban from E Channel's Spin Crowd)

Hangin' With Judy Torres!!

Way back in 2003, the PS22 Chorus got a visit from the "Queen Of Freestyle," Judy Torres! Yesterday, she returned to make some more music with the kids, this time singing "Faithfully," originally performed by Journey, then made into a dance hit several years ago by our extremely talented guest! Judy comes to us as family, and you can be sure you haven't seen the last of her appearing with PS22! (In fact there is one more video from our afternoon with Judy yesterday to look forward to which I'll be posting within the next few days!) In the meantime, check out the amazing rendition of "Faithfully" below!!

Thanks to Ms. Lisa for the awesome filming and pics! (And thanks to Ms. Laurie for the awesome rehearsal shot below!

Livin' On A Prayer

Last year, I recorded Azaria singing this when she was only in 4th grade, and was so close to posting it over the summer, until I realized it was too good to debut without the PS22 Chorus of 2011 behind her! So when "Livin' On A Prayer" was specifically requested by the coordinators of an event where the kids will be performing next week, I figured that was my cue! And "WHOOAA!!" It's safe to say this year's chorus is definitely more than "half way there!" Congrats to Azaria, who outdoes herself on the very difficult solo, and SO proud of the new group for this tight, beautiful, and dare I say EPIC rendition of this classic by Bon Jovi!

Thanks to Ms. Lisa for the beautiful camera work!

UPDATE: More thanks, this time to our fantastic friend and supporter, Perez Hilton, for spotlighting the kids' new musical accomplishment!

PS22 Chorus Gets A Message From KT Tunstall!

Thanks to our good friend Tara at EMI for forwarding us this lovely message from KT Tunstall, who dropped by to sing with PS22 last month! Check it out below:

Hi Gregg & the PS22 Choir,

What a total honour to get to sing with you guys and hear your AMAZING harmonies on my songs. It made me feel really lucky.

I had such a fantastic time, and will remember it forever. So much talent and dedication.

Gregg, you're a wonder of the world!!

I hope to see you all again soon, and KEEP ON ROCKIN'!!!

Love KT xxx

OCTOBER 2010 POLL RESULTS

PS22 Chorus fans have spoken and the funniest PS22 Chorus video was voted to be 2010's "Mrs. B vs. The Mugger" The extremely close second was 2009's "PS22 Chorus Kids Are VH1 Divas.

Make sure you vote in our new November Poll on the right sidebar!