Let their voices soar!
Students at PS 1 in Sunset Park showed off their choral chops on March 10 as the 8- to-10 year-old choristers neared the end of an eight-week course with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus called “Ready Set Sing” — and their hard work showed, said one program leader.
“They have so much energy, in a good way, and they’ve channeled it through singing,” Brooklyn Youth Chorus manager and program co-condutor Eric Williamson said.
The 22 young women involved with the program at PS 1 learned proper vocal techniques, ear training, and even how to read scores — much of the same skills taught to students with the Grammy-winning chorus.
Many students in the after-school program go on to successfully audition to join the chorus, Williamson said.
Williamson and his co-conductor Elizabeth Woodhouse taught the students at PS 1 the calypso folk song “Shake the Papaya Down,” a South African Zulu language song “Thula Klizeo” and the environmentally-conscious song “Keep it Good.”
The Brooklyn Youth Chorus also runs “Ready Set Sing” at PS 93 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, PS 15 in Red Hook, and The Bed-Stuy Restoration Corporation each semester of the school year.
All of the singers in the program will perform together at a choral festival alongside older students with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus at Excellence Boys Charter School (225 Patchen Ave. between Macon and Macdonough streets) on May 7 at 3:30 pm. The show is free and open to the public.
