An ensemble of New Haven-based instrumentalists and vocalists performed on the Today show Friday after a video of a Labor Day performance went viral on YouTube.
On Thursday, New Haven Chorale development consultant Alice Hummel said in an email, “Two of our chorale members, Don Kohn and Bill Gassman, recorded an impromptu number on Labor Day which has gone viral … with over 1.5 million hits.”
Hummel said, “NBC is sending buses to pick them up at Yale at 4 a.m.” for the Today show performance.
Yale University also promoted the televised performance, announcing on Thursday that “a choral/orchestral arrangement of Carly Rae Jepson’s pop song ‘Call Me Maybe’ performed by alumni of the Institute of Sacred Music and School of Music has gone viral on YouTube. … The all-volunteer pickup ensemble … now has a name, ‘3Penny Chorus and Orchestra,’ and their first public gig, appearing live on ‘The Today Show’ on Sept. 21.”
At press time, the YouTube video had been viewed by more than a million people.
In her email, Hummel asked rhetorically, “How many dentists get to sing on the Today show?” referring to Kohn.