USA Networks Films Reality Show at Pittsburgh Brashear

There’s music in the halls of Pittsburgh Brashear High School, and soon the nation will get to hear it.

USA Networks has spent the past week filming part of a reality television series at Brashear, and the community is invited to attend a choir concert on Sunday that will wrap up filming.

"This is going to be an opportunity for the students to be involved in a program that shows what they’ve been working on," said Pittsburgh Public Schools spokeswoman Ebony Pugh. "They really look forward to sharing this moment with the community."

The name of the series is not being released until its premiere this spring, but series host Gareth Malone said the concept is similar to that of a program he started in his hometown of London, U.K.

“The premise is that I am traveling across America and starting choirs in places that don’t have any singing,” Malone said. “At Brashear, there are some groups that sing, but there wasn’t a choir on the scale of what we started this week.”

The show provides one week for Malone’s crew to come in and start a show choir from the ground up—working with students, learning the music and staging the show all must happen in that timeframe.

“We’re really working at break-neck speed, so it’s been a very intense week, but it’s really coming together,” he said.

This is Malone’s first project in the United States, and Brashear is the first high school he has worked with for this series. Schools aren’t the only organizations he’s working with, and he has been in the country since mid-October working with groups in Colorado and Kansas. The next stop, he said, is the Cincinnati, Ohio area.

Malone said the week was—as he expected—not without its challenges. The project requires hours and hours of detailed work, but he said the end result is an amazing thing that could only be accomplished by a dedicated crew and, most importantly, dedicated students.

“As any teacher will tell you, working with teens has its wonderful moments and it’s moments of difficulty,” Malone said. “It’s been a long week, but [the students] really want to do this, and they’re bubbling over with energy. I’m very excited. This is just going to be a fantastic show.”

If you’re going:

The concert is free and open to the community. Audience members must arrive at Pittsburgh Brashear High School by 6 p.m. to complete photo release forms prior to the 7 p.m. concert.

No photography will be allowed.

Pittsburgh Brashear High School is at 590 Crane Avenue in Beechview, and serves students from Brookline, Beechview and surrounding Pittsburgh neighborhoods.

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