PHILADELPHIA, PA. (Top40 Charts) In solidarity with and in celebration of the Philadelphia 76ers, Commonwealth Youthchoirs (CY) filmed their rendition of the throwback anthem "Here Come the Sixers" to show the young singers' appreciation, support and excitement for the team during the NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals.
The morning before Game 1, singers from CY's Keystone
State Boychoir, Pennsylvania Girlchoir, Garden
State Girlchoir, New Jersey Boychoir and Find Your Instrument! programs filmed the video in just two hours.
It was Wednesday afternoon when CY staff began to envision the concept of filming singers performing the Sixers' fan favorite on a Philly basketball court. How quickly could a video shoot be coordinated to celebrate the home team? At 11pm that night when the Sixers beat the Washington Wizards in the final game of the Eastern Conference First
Round the decision was made to proceed.
On
Thursday morning, Co-Founder and
Music Director Joseph P. Fitzmartin began arranging a new rendition of Here Come the Sixers. A call went out to CY families and began scouting locations around the city. Locked Down Designs began production of 60 handmade Sixers masks. By Friday afternoon, 55 singers, a film crew, multiple volunteers and staff were confirmed for the video shoot at 9:30am Saturday at the basketball court atop St. Joseph's Preparatory School - which generously allowed the group to use the space.
CY Artistic
Director Dr.
Elizabeth Parker was at the helm of the entire project, taught the music, choreographed the video, led singers while filming and worked with the videographer and sound editor into the wee hours of the morning Sunday to complete the final video production so that it could be released that morning before Game 1 of the NBA Eastern Conference finals.
"It was so exciting to see a project like this come together so quickly," says CY Board Chair
Peter Kohn. "Commonwealth Youthchoirs loves to celebrate Philadelphia and our Singers had a blast.
Kudos to
Elizabeth Parker and the CY staff on providing this opportunity. Go Sixers!"
Commonwealth Youthchoirs (CY) is a Philadelphia-based nonprofit with a mission to transform the lives of young people through the power of making music together - one song at a time. Its family of programs includes: Find Your Instrument!, Garden
State Girlchoir, Keystone
State Boychoir, New Jersey Boychoir and Pennsylvania Girlchoir. CY serves more than 600 children in the greater Philadelphia and South Jersey region between the ages of 7 and 18. For more information, visit cychoirs.org.
