The P.S. 22 Chorus

Date: June 30, 2009

I guess I've been living under a rock . . . I've completely missed this sensation . . . so . . . Thank you to A Cappella News for pointing this story out to me. (video below)

From The Huffington Post:

The P.S. 22 chrous is lead by music teacher Mr. Breinberg, more fondly referred to his students as Mr. B. Mr. B, who arrived at P.S. 22 in 1999, convinced the administration to let him become a full-time music teacher and start a chorus choir at the school in spite of financial cutbacks in the arts. Instead of teaching traditional children's songs, he had his students singing contemporary adult songs. In addition to "Viva la Vida" by Coldplay, the P.S. 22 chorus have also tackled covers of songs by Tori Amos, Stevie Nicks, Bjork, Journey, and others.

One fateful day three summers ago, gossip blogger Perez Hilton came across the choir's cover of a Tori Amos song on YouTube and posted the video on his famous celebrity blog.

The rest, they say, is history.

The P.S. 22 Chorus have been aired on ABC News, written about in The New York Times, and -- as quite possibly the greatest honor of online fame one can achieve in this day and age -- tweeted about on Ashton Kutcher's Twitter. Tori Amos herself once came down to see the choir's live cover of her music, which immediately moved her to tears. As of last Sunday, P.S. 22 Chorus videos have been seen by 5 million viewers.

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Robin Banerjee on June 30, 2009 7:24am

Sorry, but I've probably missed the point. What's so amazing about this group of school boys and girls (choir?) shouting their head off (singing?) to a rather simple and not very interesting pop song?. I would say that amazing and deeply mooving is, for instance, the vieshna choir or similar (i.e. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Kj-o6URKNg or may be http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQjNH6WqaFg ) or even the UENSA ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0JOyKwqj-8) but of course its just an opinion.

Best wishes.

philip copeland on June 30, 2009 11:22am

Robin,

I would say this to you - open your eyes. You see kids "shouting their heads off" to "an uninteresting pop song."

I see a brilliant teacher pulling off a near miracle . . . teaching underpriveleged children to sing - to express themselves musically - to perform with emotion - to move to music . . . .

You are right that it's not an auditioned choir singing refined choral music. Aren't we called to meet people where they are?

thomas Coker on July 3, 2009 9:28am

It really is a case of apples and oranges. PS22 and the three links you give are to be commended for the tremendous work they have done. To bring "regular" children into the joy of singing in a way that provides inspiration and vision for their lives is no small gift to the children and community of PS22. Neither is the teaching of the intense discipline of the auditioned ensembles. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing all of these but I do not see them as mutually exclusive.

Thomas Coker

Tom Carter on June 30, 2009 2:09pm

Thanks so much for posting this, Philip! What fun to see all those kids connecting to text and music, and MOVING, even while sitting!! Great inspiration for those singers and directors who are more familiar with sitting and standing still.

As an audience member, I would SO ENJOY the experience of an entire concert by these kids. While other groups might sing more challenging music, and do it with more vocal finesse, perhaps, I would much prefer the joy and humanity expressed by the kids in P.S. 22.

In fact, UNLESS the "more advanced" groups connected to the music and text with as much joy and abandon, my experience as an audience member would not be nearly as rich and rewarding as it would be with this public school choir. (I recently attended a very musically skilled group's concert -- and yes, they were vastly superior musically -- but I would have been very happy to leave the concert ten minutes in.)

Cheers!

Tom

Lisa Mischke on July 1, 2009 9:25am

These kids are singing in an appropriate tone for a pop song, and doing a great job! Having taught elementary gen. music and chorus, I'd say this guy has a very successful class. As a human being, I'd say watching this was "good church" for me. This brought me to happy tears! And I'll bet a bunch of these kids are very interested in learning singing skills so they can reach the sweet high notes often found in pop music these days. Look at that soloist. He has a sweet voice, "stage presence," and now just needs some instruction, which I bet he's much more open to than your average...4th?grade boy.

Yeah, sometimes it's frustrating when kids come in with that very closed tone that's popular in pop music these days...but they love singing and, as Julia Andrews sang, "That's a very good place to start!"

Lisa

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