Rhythm of the Knight Uniondale show choir to appear on 'Today' show

Lynnette Carr-Hicks and her Rhythm of the Knight Uniondale Show Choir are a pretty grounded bunch. But even an award-winning high school choir needs an anchor sometimes. Or in this case, a co-anchor.

The top-ranked singers and their accompanying band, will make their third appearance  on NBC’s “Today” show on Monday. This time, however, “Today” show co-anchor Hoda Kotb will join the teenagers in a live performance.

“Today” show producer Robin Sindler reached out to the group in May, unaware they had won the top honor at the 2018 Show Choir National Finals in Chicago a month before, said Carr-Hicks, the group's instructor.

“She . . . presented us with this opportunity where Hoda would be part of the show choir, where she would learn the dance movements and sing with the choir,” Carr-Hicks said.

On July 10, Kotb visited Carr-Hicks and the choir at Uniondale High School to practice vocals and learn choreography for their performance to Bruno Mars’ song “Perm.”

“It was on a whole different level from anything that we’ve done,” said Carr-Hicks, 49, who started the show choir at Uniondale High School when she began teaching there in 2008. “And knowing that the ‘Today’ show is on everyone’s television, not just local, that’s why I feel it’s so mind-blowing.”

Carr-Hicks, a Broadway alum, said she was star-struck.

“My interview with her, it was so personal as if we were friends just having a conversation,” she said.

The “Today” show sent about a dozen camera and other crew members to the school last month to interview Carr-Hicks and choir members.

Joynell Carr, 30, is the group’s choreographer. She and her mother visited the “Today” show studio last week to practice the choreography with Kotb.

Monday’s performance will mark one of the last as a choir member for Emmanuel Beauge, who graduated from Uniondale High School in June.

In his four years with the choir, Beauge, 18, of Uniondale, has sung and danced on the “Today” show and served as supporting act for Barry Manilow, the band Foreigner and Kenny Rogers.

On Monday, he will leave on a high note — literally and vocally.

“This time Hoda is performing with us. So it’s very different,” he said. “It’s very cool to have her be our guest. Instead of us being her guest.”