The PS22 Chorus Goes To The Oscars

The PS22 Chorus Goes To The Oscars

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The Academy Award show is Sunday night, and excitement is growing over what celebrities will wear, what they will say, and who will be the big winners. In addition, we can expect to hear some musical performances by Mandy Moore, Randy Newman and Gwyneth Paltrow (yes, she’s singing).

But there is one group performing you probably don’t know: The PS22 Chorus, a fifth grade glee club from Staten Island.

After discovering the PS22 Chorus on YouTube, Anne Hathaway showed up at their Winter Recital in December to personally invite them to perform at the awards show. Needless to say, there was a lot of screaming.

In 2006, musical director Gregg Breinberg started posting videos of the PS22 Chorus’s rehearsals on the web, and when Tori Amos, Perez Hilton and eventually Oprah discovered these videos, they became an Internet sensation. Breinberg is particularly fond of arranging choral renditions of rock and pop songs. Their most popular video is of “Just Dance” by Lady Gaga, with almost 4.5 million YouTube hits.

Now Breinberg and over 60 10-year-olds are in Hollywood preparing for Sunday’s performance. The PS22 Chorus will be singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Copyright 2011 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.