After US President Barack Obama’s, the US Olympic Swimming Team’s and even Cookie Monster’s renditions, does anybody seriously want to hear one more cover of “Call Me Maybe”?
Carly Rae Jepsen’s mega pop hit, which reached the top spot in Billboard.com’s Top 100, just got one more YouTube sensation when a New England choir and orchestra recorded a classical version of the catchy ditty in early September.
And there’s a Filipino connection: The conductor is Yale graduate Arianne Abela, a niece of theater artist Bart Guingona, who tipped us off on the news.
Abela and her collaborator Colin Britt, with the 3Penny Chorus and Orchestra, a volunteer ensemble, performed their cover live on NBC’s “The Today Show” Friday morning (8 p.m. Manila time). Abela and Britt arranged the music. According to Abela, who spoke to New England Cable News, it took the ensemble only about an hour-and-a-half to learn and rehearse before recording.
As of writing, the YouTube video (www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFVhSDQmIxs) has had over 1.3 million hits.
A prize-winning music scholar originally from San Francisco, California, Abela graduated from the Yale School of Music and Yale Institute of Sacred Music. She’s a music teacher at Notre Dame High School in West Haven, Connecticut.