On Saturday, September 21 about 20 members of the choir sang at the International Vigil for Peace Concert in Central Park. It was a lovely, windy afternoon, lots of people were hanging out or walking by and pausing to listen, with some sitting in the several rows of chairs in front of the Bandshell. The flags of many countries flapped in the breezes. It was a beautiful, sunny Fall day.
The choir slowly gathered a little after 1:00pm , and around 1:30pm we warmed up, well away from the stage. Several members of the Streetsingers (Cheryl's group) joined us, and while we began with just two altos, by the time we were on stage we had two more.
We started singing right on schedule, at 2 PM and opened with a rousing rendition of Siyahamba which quickly caught the audience's attention. We then sang Peace Salaam Shalom, Aquarius, Imagine and Give Us Hope - with Rene's music at times flapping in the strong breezes. The audience loved the songs. It was a wonderful concert, full of good energy and the celebration of values that matter to both our choir and the audience: peace, harmony, oneness in the world.
After we left the stage we decided to give an impromptu concert over near the Bethesda Fountain - only to find a major chess tournament going on there and every available space filled with card tables covered with chess sets! We walked on towards the Boathouse Restaurant and stopped on the path and set up to sing between the path and a huge willow tree by the lake. It was a beautiful setting with many people walking by. We sang the same repertoire again while one choir member's children passed out our Peace of Heart flyers. We ended the day with lots of photo ops by the lake - the most popular of which was posing with Angela in her "Miss Plus America" banner and tiara!!
What a wonderful way to spend a Fall afternoon!
- Peace of Heart Choir SingerIt has become a tradition for a member of POHC to do a post-concert write-up. It started when our Sign-up Coordinator began emailing her summaries to the other members in order to entice newer members to sign-up to sing at community concerts held early in the season. It didn't take long for Concert Write-ups to become greatly anticipated amongst our members, so we share them here in hopes that you'll join us at a future concert.