The Chorus Brings Suzanne Vega To Tears!

Last week I received a beautiful message from Suzanne Vega, who let me know that she was deeply moved by the PS22 Chorus rendition of her song, "Language." She writes:

Just saw the video for "Language" - I love it!!
SO gorgeous! I had tears all over my face..... Thank you for this.

XXX
Suzanne

It was so kind of Suzanne to take the time to send her praises to the PS22 Chorus! Not only that, her official website is currently featuring the chorus prominently! (You can see a screencap below.) Just amazing!!

And The Winner Is....

Congratulations to the PS22 Chorus of 2009 for winning Schooltube's Best Video in the Elementary category!!! This is a superb accomplishment for the kids' extraordinary performance of "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay! April wears the medal proudly, as she should, for her beautiful soloing in the video! Well done, kiddos!

Silent E!

What gives a little hop a lot of hope? You know it.... "SILENT E!" Great to see that Electric Company finally posted the full-length video for this! The kids filmed this in June of 2008 with actor, James Iglehart, who was completely cool, and obviously very happy and impressed with the professionalism of his PS22 Chorus co-stars! Watch the video and you'll see why!

Another "Language"

A few days ago I posted the first rehearsal of one of our newest tunes. It's truly amazing the difference one practice makes! April, who sang the solo on the now-classic PS22 Chorus version of Coldplay's Viva La Vida, demonstrates a an entirely new dimension to her talent! The song is "Language" by Suzanne Vega, one of the all-time great singer/songwriters, and one that has always held a lot of meaning for me. The kids totally do it justice and that's to say the very least..... The PS22 Chorus of 2009 is a forced to be reckoned with!

Brand Spankin' New!

Yesterday's PS22 Chorus rehearsal was pretty incredible! The kids learned 2 new songs yesterday and Ms. Lisa filmed to demonstrate just how quickly this chorus is picking up new music at this point in the year. The first song is called, "Language," by Suzanne Vega, and the next is called "Folk Song," by The Sundays. If they sound this good on the first day of rehearsing these new tunes, one can only imagine how amazing these songs will be after a few more practices!

"Language" by Suzanne Vega


"Folk Song" by The Sundays

The PS22 Chorus Reflects!

This is a beautiful song by The Velvet Underground with Nico called, "I'll Be Your Mirror," and was also covered by Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles. The chorus did a fantastic job on this at Friday's rehearsal. Check it out below!

NEW As-Of-Yet-Unaired PS22 Chorus ELECTRIC COMPANY Vid!

On The Radio!!

(Click on the pink play button above to listen to the interview)

Yesterday, the PS22 Chorus celebrated yet another milestone! At about 1:15 PM, I was interviewed by Chris Evans on his weekday radio show on The BBC (which, according to reliable sources,attracts a listening audience of over 5,000,000 people daily) about the incredible accomplishments of the PS22 Chorus! Chorus members Mariah and Joseph even got to give a shout out to the U.K. too!

But most significantly, it was the first time ever that the PS22 Chorus were heard on a major radio station. They played the chorus singing it's version of "Everybody's Changing" by Keane, and the kids sounded PERFECT!! The response so far that we've received has been simply overwhelming! Stay tuned for a link or an mp3 of the radio interview -- coming soon!
CONGRATULATIONS CHORUS!!!

The PS22 Chorus is Drivin' Thru!!

After hearing great feedback from Keane on our rendition of their song "Everybody's Changing" only a week ago, the chorus now has gotten another 'thumbs up' from the artists associated with the song, "My Drive Thru". The performers on the original track include Santogold (a personal favorite), Pharrell, Julian Casablancas, and N.E.R.D.) The song was featured on an extremely popular Converse commercial that ran several months ago.

Well today I was contacted by Jeff Tammes, who e-mailed to say,

"I put that track together for Converse and when I saw the videos I forwarded it to Converse as well as the artists involved. They all agree that it is an amazing version of the song."

It was also very cool to find that they did a short article about the chorus and it's rendition of "My Drive Thru" in Advertising Age Magazine, with another very nice quote from Jeff.

So congrats again kids!! You are certainly 'driving' your way right into the public consciousness!! Keep making us proud!!

The original version!

A Record Deal?!? Whaaaaaaaaaa?!?

The writer of Friday's amazing article in The Guardian wrote that for the PS22 Chorus, "an album deal can't be far away." It turns out he may well be psychic, for things are indeed looking extremely promising for a major CD release from our favorite fifth grade phenoms!! Here's the story....

After being contacted by David Holmes, manager of Coldplay(!!!), who expressed interest in discussing the possibilities of a PS22 Chorus CD, we welcomed him to come join us for a chorus practice at the school. So he extended his flight back to L.A. to come see us, and arrived Friday morning at P.S.22 with another very kind representative from 3D Management, Christina Dunkley. We discussed our respective visions and various possibilities with regard to the project, and it was gratifying to see that the work we do was being taken extremely seriously. After some discussion, our guests were treated to a mini-concert of 6 or 7 songs. Here is a new version of "My Drive Thru" by Santogold, Pharrell, Julian Casablancas, & N.E.R.D..

When I got home from an awesome day at "work", I got a call from the president of Polydor Records, Ferdy Unger-Hamilton, AND Keane's manager, Adam Tudhope, both completely unaware that we had already established a connection with David! To be contacted by such important people in the music industry all at once, has to be taken as a definite indication of exciting things on the way for the chorus. As it turns out, David has worked with Ferdy before, so it is a definite possibility that we may be joining forces. While serious negotiations have only begun, it's just wild to know that this unprecedented event (to my knowledge), of a public school chorus CD being distributed by a major label, is even a possibility!.

The PS22 Chorus with Coldplay management, David & Christina

This is all very surreal and hard to digest, but big things do seem to be on the way for the little chorus that could! With the release of the Passion Pit CD, and now this, it looks like 2009 is going to be some year for the PS22 Chorus! And we couldn't be prouder!

GUARDIAN Angel!!

An awesome article appeared in the U.K. paper The Guardian, the British version of the N.Y. Times (which ran a feature about the chorus just last month)!! It was awesome to get this kind of international exposure, and a total surprise! Big thanks to Chris Zane of Passion Pit who forwarded me the article. Click here to read it on The Guardian's website.

PS22 Chorus in FADER Magazine!!

Last week, when we were recording with Passion Pit in Manhattan, we were all joined in the studio by reps from FADER Magazine. They brought along a camera crew, and did an exclusive feature on the band's recording process. The band and Chris Zane, the producer, were awesome to arrange to have the magazine's visit coincide with that of the kids. So naturally, the video spent a lot of time showing the rising stars of the PS22 Chorus in action! It's important to note that Fader Magazine is an extremely important showcase of new talent in the music business! The kids are definitely on their way! Especially when considering that they've been the featured video on the home page of FADER Magazine since it went up on the site yesterday. So press play on the above video, and get ready to behold something extremely special.....