If Music Be the Food of Love, Sing On

Annie Stone — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 04:00:11 +0000

They’ve performed with Stevie Nicks at Madison Square Garden, recorded back-up for Passion Pit and sung for Nancy Pelosi in Washington. But now, the famed kid’s choir from PS-22, an elementary school in Staten Island, is singing for its life.

The school’s principal, Melissa Donath, told New York Post that severe budget cuts may force them to cut the program next year. “My goal is to keep the program intact but some things are out of my control,” she said in a story published in the paper on Sunday. “There are budgetary losses and all the schools are feeling it,” she said.

The choir, made up of 65 fourth and fifth graders, is led by their indefatigable music teacher Gregg Breinberg since 2000. He started it to help the kids find an artistic and emotional outlet at a school where many of the students struggle with financial difficulties.
Arts programs are always the first to get cut,” Breinberg told the New York Post. “The students need this emotional outlet,” he said.

New York Stories » Kids

If Music Be the Food of Love, Sing On