DOUBLE PLATINUM!

The day has come!! As of this evening, The PS22 Chorus has received over 2,000,000 hits on their videos worldwide!!!! The latest influx of viewers can be attributed to Perez Hilton spotlighting our chorus yet again!! And this time, it wasn't even a Tori Amos song! This time it was "White Christmas", which was featured on our previous post! It is indeed an honor to have Perez as a bonafide PS22 Chorus fan, and we sincerely appreciate him spreading the word about our amazing kids!

With a "Perez bump" always comes a series of honors for the chorus, and today is no exception. The "White Christmas" video is already almost up to 100,000 hits and the kids' video channel was the #3 most viewed musician's channel today! Click on the pics below to see more.

The PS22 Chorus YouTube channel honors

Honors for our new "White Christmas" video

Borough Hall Tree Lighting 2008!

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This past Thursday, December 11th, the PS22 Chorus of 2009 gave a stellar a capella performance at this year's Borough Hall Tree Lighting event! Even though As a result of driving rains (which, needless to say, we got SOAKED in!!), the ceremony was held indoors in a rather sardine can-like room! We managed to all squeeze in, when we realized there was no working keyboard on-hand. So we had to wing it, and they soared on that wing indeed! It was the first time the PS22 Chorus ever performed publicly a capella, and the kids' (in the audience) reaction below says it all!

The PS22 Chorus of '09 have shown that they are pros indeed. Under difficult circumstances, they really pulled it off! And to say the kids "pulled it off" is a massive understatement. You can see the chorus singing White Christmas in the video below that illustrates the point.

"White Christmas"

Thanks to Jared's dad for the awesome video footage. Now enjoy more incredible pictures, courtesy again of Ms. Lisa!

Mumbai Memorial Ceremony

On Thursday, December 10th, PS22 Chorus member Alexandra sang a beautiful solo version of "Let There Be Peace On Earth" for a ceremony sponsored by Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro (pictured above with Allie), honoring the victims of the Mumbai attacks in India. The ceremony, including Allie's magnificent performance will be aired on CTV (Staten Island Cable Channel 34, 35, or 57) at some point in the near future. Stay tuned!

bbc

Hangin' With The Cornflake Girl....

Couldn't resist posting this little gem from 2004.... Yeah, try not to crack a smile while watching this one - I dare you! To find something resembling an explanation for this performance, click here">

OK Cable!!

Congratulations to the PS22 Chorus of 2009 for a brilliant performance yesterday at The Time Warner Cable Holiday Choral Concerts. The chorus performed five selections and was truly in top form.

Tonight, Staten Islanders will get to see a 10 second sneak preview of all the participating schools on Channel 76 (Time Warner Cable only), and tomorrow the complete performances will be available On Demand, Channel 1111 (again, Time Warner Cable only.) Below are more pics from the filming.

Altos singing their hearts out!
Tirzah sings "One Day"
Marcel feeling it!
Leah too!
Sopranos looking good!
Lobna and Moona are all smiles! Mrs. Donath (principal) very proud!
Joey, Maya, and Diggy (Davon)
Pepsi (Giuseppe) & Tariq celebrating a job well done!

A New Article In The Staten Island Advance

Thanks to Diane Lore of the Staten Island Advance for yet another excellent article about The PS22 Chorus in yesterday's paper....

These Perez-cious Things....

CONGRATULATIONS are definitely in order for the PS22 Chorus of 2009!!! The kids' new version of "1000 OCEANS" by Tori Amos has become the #1 most viewed PS22 Chorus video of all-time!! It even beat out the video of the kids singing for Tori herself! It has earned over 135,000 views in the past 3 days alone!It's been a tremendous weekend for the chorus thanks to the Perez Hilton bump!! Our gratitude goes out to Perez for continually presenting our kids to his huge following, and earning us an exorbitant number of new PS22 Chorus fans!

To highlight only some of this weekend's unprecedented accomplishments:

* Perez Hilton posts our new video of 1000 Oceans to an overwhelmingly numerous and uniformly positive response!!

* The PS22 Chorus video was the most e-mailed posting off of Perez's site this entire weekend!!

* The PS22 Chorus YouTube Channel becomes the #1 most viewed Musicians channel, again, for the entire weekend!!

* Within 3 days of its initial posting, the PS22 Chorus video of 1000 Oceans earns 135,000 views and becomes the #1 PS22 Chorus video of all-time!!

* 1000 Oceans becomes one of the 10 Top-Favorited Music Videos on YouTube on Sunday!

* With the latest surge, PS22 Chorus videos now have received over 1,750,000 hits world-wide, and counting!!!

* The PS22 Chorus version of 1000 Oceans has received more views in the last 3 days than even Tori's original video of the song on YouTube!


It's been an amazing ride so far, and it's only November! The sky is the limit with this new group!!!

Farewell Concert of 2005

Here are 4 newly uploaded tunes from our Farewell Concert of 2005. This was a classic PS22 performance and the kids were unbelievable straight through until their last note.

Here is unforgettable PS22 soloist, Ben, singing a brilliant version of "Not Guilty" by John P. Kee and The New Life Community Choir, and sings it to utter perfection.

And here is a great version of The Staple Singers classic hit, "I'll Take You There" mixed with "Emotion" by The BeeGees (and later by Destiny's Child). Beatrice lights up the stage and sings the solo so beautifully.

PS22 Chorus in The Brooklyn Rail

Along with yesterday's overwhelming response to 1000 Oceans, I've been getting many requests for background information on the PS22 Chorus. Well recently, Miss Lisa brought to my attention that I neglected to post a fantastic article about the chorus that appeared in the July issue of The Brooklyn Rail. So I figure now is the perfect time to post it. The story was written by friend of the chorus, Sophie Gilbert, who spent an amazing day with us in June. It is a thorough article for those who are looking for insight on the PS22 Chorus phenomenon. You can click on the screen-cap below, or read it on The Brooklyn Rail's website. There are also many more news items about the chorus linked on the sidebar.

100,000 Views of 1000 OCEANS

An amazing day for the chorus. Today we filmed what is simply one of the most beautiful covers the kids have ever performed. And they learned it in only 2 rehearsals!!! The song is "1000 Oceans" by Tori Amos, with whom the chorus had the unfathomable fortune to sing with last year. (Click here if you somehow missed PS22's most watched video of all-time.) )

Well brace yourself for this one.... Allie is nothing short of astounding on the solo, and her growing talent is proving to be a force to be reckoned with! And the PS22 Chorus of 2009, as a whole, never sounded better, and that's no joke. Someone should tell these kids it's only November, and that there's no excuse for performing so brilliantly this early in the year!!! :)

And here's a fun glimpse at an after-school rehearsal with some of the "chorus coaches", and they too sound fantastic in an a capella rendition of the same song. Melina does the solo here, and she too is proving to be a rising star of the all-new PS22 Chorus of 2009.

AMAZING UPDATE!!!

(Saturday, Nov. 15)

The PS22 Chorus version of 1000 Oceans is now being featured on Perez Hilton's blog!! This is the third time Perez has posted about the chorus, and every time he does he brings the the kids thousands of new fans. We are also currently the most e-mailed posting on his site!!! INCREDIBLE!! Thanks to Perez for helping to share the amazing kids of the PS22 Chorus with the world!! Below is a screen cap from the Perez posting.

AMAZING UPDATE #2!!!

(last edited Sunday, Nov. 16, 12:30 pm)

The PS22 Chorus rendition of 1000 Oceans as of 12:30 PM, Sunday afternoon, has over 100,000 views and counting! (Thus the renamed post-title!)

And really exciting news -- the chorus's YouTube channel is the #1 Most Viewed Music Channel today!!!! In addition, 1000 Oceans has been earning major YouTube honors as well. With over 100,000 views, it has already become the third most watched PS22 Chorus video only one day after its initial posting! Click on the screen-caps below to see the most up-to-date info.....

CONGRATULATIONS, CHORUS!!!!!

It Happened "One Day"....

It indeed happened "one day", yesterday in fact, that we got a visit from friend of the PS22 Chorus, Martin Stepanek. Martin is a journalist from Austria who wrote a story about the chorus after we sang with Tori Amos in May of 2007. He also did an amazing interview with Tori Amos, in which he discussed in good detail with Tori her feelings about her PS22 Chorus experience.

Today, Martin came to get a first-hand listen to the kids he helped promote all over Europe and the U.S. with his fantastic coverage of the chorus. We sang several of the songs in our repertoire together for our special guest, who was "at a loss for words" at hearing the chorus firsthand. He even took the time to interview some of the kids in the chorus for perhaps a future article about our local international celebrities!

Here are the kids singing an amazing rendition of "One Day" by Bjork. At the and of the video is a little piece of a song we learned at our last practice in honor of Martin's visit. Martin also is a huge Tori Amos fan so the last little piece of the video is a song called "1000 Oceans" by Tori herself. It was pretty astounding, to both Martin and myself, how the kids remembered it so well on their first and only attempt after just 1 practice.

SKY FITS HALLOWEEN!

The PS22 Chorus was looking rather ghoulish for Halloween! But the kids sounded better than ever today! Here's the proof -- as some of the members of the chorus got together this morning to record "Sky Fits Heaven" by pop icon, Madonna! Chorus member (and pirate) Nick did a great job filming his first time on the job! So now get ready for something good.....

UPDATE: Check out this version from our holiday show instead which includes the full chorus and Mr. Eberle on guitar!

And a few more Halloween pics.....