At Kings Hotel, a Hurricane Sandy Shelter

Several weeks ago, just as we were all re-emerging from our homes after the Superstorm Sandy, one of the earliest members of the Peace of Heart Choir suggested that an additional outreach performance should be added in support of the hurricane recovery effort. Our schedule was already more than full, but the idea was so wonderfully in concert with our original Choir mission post-9/11 that it was clearly worth pursuing. Three weeks, and about two dozen phone calls later, after an attempt to sing at the Park Slope Armory storm shelter was foiled by its closure, we gathered at the Kings Hotel, deep in the heart of East New York, on a breezy Saturday afternoon, just two days after Thanksgiving.

The Kings Hotel sits on a lonely industrial stretch of Atlantic Avenue, deep in the heart of Brooklyn. An elevated portion of the avenue runs overhead down the middle of the street. It's a plain brick building, next to what looked like a recycling center for collected cans and bottles. Julia, a very polished blond volunteer at the shelter, greeted us in the lobby with her small dog.

We headed downstairs, through a maze of small rooms in the basement being used as social areas where people could sit, talk, play cards, and read. A dozen or more smokers congregated outside on the side of the building. The dining hall in the basement was a simple but decent-sized room. We cleared out the center of the room for the choir, so we were surrounded by chairs and tables on three sides.

During the early part of the warm-up, there were a few minutes of trepidation for Alto Pearl and Soprano Cheryl as they were the only people in their sections. But in the end, we had a full complement of about a dozen singers, with every part covered. We sang for perhaps 30 older folks. Clearly, they'd been through a lot the last few weeks and were tired. Many were wearing their coats. These were mostly residents from Belle Harbor Manor and one or two other assisted living facilities in the Rockaways, who'd been moved to the Kings Hotel when the Armory was closed.

We began with Siyahamba, which is undoubtedly one of the best opening numbers we've done. It welcomes the audience wonderfully, and catches their attention.René got the whole audience trained up to join us as we sang backup on Little Bitty Pretty One, which was fantastic. So glad we simplified the arrangement. It's a great sing-along opportunity, and Tenor Alex did a nice job on the solo. The audience was clearly appreciative, but fairly quietly throughout, applauding each song, but not getting overly excited. Still, as at most Peace of Heart Choir performances, there were a few people who were clearly more touched by the music than others. One older women, with no visible teeth, was singing along and smiling through most of the show.

Afterwards, she complimented Cheryl on her voice. She was there with her friend. She'd lost her walker, her clothes, and almost everything else in the flood, and didn't even know what was left behind to salvage at this point. But she was happy to be alive and well, and had truly enjoyed the concert. Another Kings Hotel resident, a middle-aged man wearing a beret and several layers of clothes, began singing and dancing along for a song or two. Before the show, he had been combing through his music for things he might join us on. Looked like he had a lot of Sinatra-era classics. He said he was performing with his group there on Sunday.

A black man with large glasses, who'd been sitting very quietly as we talked with others after the show, asked when we might see them again, and hoped that we could at least make it out to The Rockaways to sing for them again. At this point, I don't think they're sure if the facility they were living in will reopen, or when. But we'll check, and perhaps try to make the trek out there in a coming season.

After the performance we met Caron, a shelter volunteer who'd helped set up the show. She'd come straight from a bar mitzvah in Park Slope, but caught most of our performance. She was so happy we'd made it. Apparently when this group was at the Park Slope Armory they had a virtual parade of performers coming through. But few have made the trek to East New York. Overall, a lovely performance. We offered our sympathy, our music and the solace it can provide, and offered of ourselves.

- Peace of Heart Tenor

It 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. 

At the Park Armory Women's Mental Health centre

It was a sunny and brisk this past Saturday, as I was approaching the Park Avenue Armory Women's Mental Health Shelter for POHC's latest concert. I'm used traveling to the shelter now, since I've performed there before with POHC. I saw some fellow POHC members entering the building. After a short elevator ride we made it to the third floor where we set out coats and bags in the pantry. From there, I could overhear René leading the Choir in voice warm ups in the cafeteria across the hall, where we were also to perform our concert.

Some of the shelter residents arrived in the cafeteria while rested our voices after the warm-ups. Soon, we were ready to perform. We started with Siyahamba, which we sang very well. The audience really liked it.

Then we sang Peace Salaam Shalom. We tried to get the audience to participate they didn't know the words; I think they liked the song anyways. Our third song was Od Yavo. We did get the audience to clap along with this song. Then came Down By The Riverside and several choir members went down to the audience shaking hands when a catchy lyrics "I'm gonna shake hands around the world..." started. Next was Little Bitty Pretty One with yours truly singing solo along with my fellow Tenor, Alex.

Then we did This Land was your Land. We usually have the audience singing with us, but the lyrics were not passed around, so the audience didn't sing it as much. They seemed to enjoy it regardless. We moved on to Imagine, then Hafinjan with Soprano Cheryl doing the solo. She has one great voice there. Toward the end we sang our Channukah song, Light One Candle, then a 9/11 commemorative song, Give Us Hope. We closed with our theme song, Let There Be Peace of Earth, with Soprano Deb and myself singing the solos. The audience loved us, and they thanked us for the performance we did for them, which was wonderful.

-Peace of Heart Tenor

It 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. 

At the Jewish Community Center

On the Saturday after superstorm Sandy disrupted the East Coast, Manhattan Jewish Community Center hosted POHC for a concert as part of their Saturday R&R program. The JCC lobby was packed near capacity. Mothers and fathers sitting on chairs, bouncing their knees up and down in time to our singing because their hands weren’t free to clap—they were holding on to the children on their laps. More adults were standing behind and in between them. In the back, other people were sorting donations of clothing and assorted items for people severely affected by the storm.

On the side, still other people were clustered around the snack and beverage table. The place was humming with the noise of a crowded restaurant where you have to shout to talk to your table-mates. Into this din marched the SATB members of the POHC. We took our places and waited for some quiet so René could introduce the Choir.

When the quiet didn’t come, we decided to just sing. Our opening number, Siyahamba, couldn’t have been better-chosen. Now we had their attention! I can’t say that they were totally quiet for the rest of the concert. I can say that all of them in the front were paying attention, especially the wide-eyed children. So were most of them in the back. And when we got to Od Yavo, I saw some of the people sorting items on the donation table singing with us while they worked. (At one point, in the middle of a song, a man came up and whispered something in René’s ear. When the song finished, René faced the audience and said, “I’m told to announce that three more teenagers are needed in the sorting area.”)

This was sabbath at the JCC, where peace is supposed to reign and no work is to be done. No work means no appliances, which means René was not allowed to play his piano, which means our entire concert was a capella (unless you count René’s pitch pipe). For the Choir—at least for me—this was an unexpected treat. René was 100% conductor, his gestures and facial expressions letting us know exactly how to shape the sound. And we did give forth a really fine sound, the controlled chaos around us notwithstanding. Contrast today with our concerts at the hospice, where we go into a patient’s room, gather around his or her bed, and sing to one person. Each is satisfying in a different way.

-Peace of Heart Alto

It 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. 

At St. Luke's Psychiatric Unit

On a beautiful fall Sunday, the Peace of Heart Choir visited St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital in Morningside Heights, near Columbia University. The lone staff member eating lunch in the first floor cafeteria said she didn’t mind our warming up within feet of her table, so we made ourselves at home. Then we went upstairs to the day-room of the psychiatric unit.

As always, our pre-concert arrangements interested the audience—the re-arranging of chairs, the moving of the piano, René’s tickling the keys and pronouncing it a "fine specimen." Then René introduced the choir, and Gary introduced the South African hymn, Siyahamba, inviting the audience to determine whether this was in Zulu or Africaans.

René started his drumbeat, and we were off. No one weighed in on the language question at the end of the song, but they were obviously engaged. Starting with the next song, John Lennon's Imagine, we invited them to sing along with any of our numbers. No one did, except for the actual sing-alongs, Down by the Riverside and This Land is Your Land. But many clapped along or swayed, and all seemed interested in the introductions.

A few patients walked in and out during our performance, but there was a core who stayed for all eight songs. And though we were a bit sparse on some parts, POHC is nothing if not adaptable. A soprano joined the altos, a first soprano sang second, and, for our Spanish song, Nanita, René sang with the basses. At the end of the concert, we mingled with the audience, all of whom thanked us for coming and said they enjoyed it.

One of the nurses told me she like the a capella songs best, because there was more of a connection with the audience. She also said she loved the songs with the drums. Another staff member asked us to come back for Thanksgiving and Christmas; our Steering Committee Co-Chair, and tenor, Gary talked to her about scheduling for next year.

Before we went our separate ways, we gathered in the street under the St. Luke’s sign, and on of our newer sopranos, Noella, posed us with our black folders in our left hands and took our picture for the website. Post-performance smiles at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital.

-POHC Alto

It 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.

At the Vigil for International Peace

The weather was wonderful, a little chilly but still hangout weather in Central Park. POHC members gathered around the Naumburg Bandshell to participate in the 11th annual Vigil for International Peace, a day of music, performance, and arts inspired by the United Nations' 2001 Resolution 55/282, which designates each September 21st as a full day of global ceasefire and nonviolence.As I approached the area with two of our newer members, there was already a performance going on.

I don't know the group name, but they were already singing John Lennon's Imagine, a song we were planning to sing. We stepped away from the crowd, away from the stage area, and started a short rehearsal with a warm-up. No physical exercise as we would do in regular rehearsals, but voice exercise. When we were singing the South African hymn, Siyahamba, two trucks drove through the area and we had to step aside while we still practiced the song. Then we rehearsed Peace Salaam Shalom. Even though there were some distractions, we worked together and were ready to perform.

After our rehearsal/warm-up, we went back to watching others perform while we waited for our turn. We had planned to start at 2pm but it was already 20 minutes after. Finally it was our turn. We waited on the stairs behind the stage. It was kinda narrow as we walked inside. We finally got on stage, right after POHC Soprano, Cheryl, and friends sang a song. Then it was our turn.

We started out with Peace Salaam Shalom (POHC Soprano, Deb, helped out by joining the Alto section for the song, and it turned out great). Then we went on with Siyahamba. Easy song to get through too. Then we sang our theme song, Let There Be Peace on Earth, which was also our final song for this concert. While we sang, there were several people in the audience waving their hands from side to side, something we don't always see at our concerts. The audience seemed to enjoy our performance and we enjoyed being there.

-Peace of Heart Tenor

It 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. 

9/11 Remembrance Concert, Central Park

 Peace of Heart Choir formed in response to the events of September 11, 2001. During this time of year we join with other New Yorkers to remember, connect and heal.

The sky was blue and the sun shone today—the same weather we had eleven years ago. Except that today’s air was fresher. A perfect day for our outdoor memorial concert. We gathered at Merchants' Gate, the Columbus Circle entrance to Central Park. Our Music Facilitator, René, set up his portable piano, and the Choir arranged themselves a few steps up, in front of the monument.

Our audience faced us from behind René; people of all ethnicities and ages (including a baby), some standing still to listen or sing along, some passing by on their way to somewhere, smiling in our direction as they walked. The policeman leaning on his van off to the side looked as if he wasn’t sure what was going on but liked what he was seeing and hearing. In any case, he let us be.

We opened with the South African hymn Siyahamba, which went off pretty well considering we learned only it a few days ago. Kudos to the choir! The audience sang along to the songs we thought they would—Down By the Riverside and This Land is Your Land—as well as to Od Yavo, Imagine, and Let There Be Peace On Earth.

This was an informal concert. There was background noise from the general public, and also drums from a group on the other side of the monument. Unphazed, we sang through it all, and the audience obviously enjoyed us. The noise also worked in our favor: we didn’t have to be perfect.

After the concert, several of us were approached by students from the Columbia School of Journalism, who had been assigned to come to Central Park specifically to report on us. Their questions were about how the Choir formed, what various members do in our “regular” lives, whether we knew anyone who had died in the attacks, and more. These were audio interviews (no video), and the students used the same equipment René uses to record our regular concerts, so he gave them pointers on the microphone. In a way it’s fitting that the Columbia students were there, because POHC was started eleven years ago by musicians from the Columbia School of Social Work. Afterward, a few of us went out to eat and then down to the Hudson River to view the memorial beams of light from Ground Zero, beams reaching high into the sky, way past where the towers did.

- Peace of Heart Alto

It 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. 

At Kittay House Seniors Sing Out!

We had a large audience in the Bronx, at Kittay House Senior Apartment Living, on Saturday June 23--as big as the one at the church in Queens when we sang with the children’s choir. They were patiently waiting for us to begin when we were asked to hold off so they could clean up a spill in the back of the performance area. In true POHC fashion, we used the time to mingle with members of the audience. René was chatting with a man in the audience when, all of a sudden, the two of them burst into an operatic aria that could be heard throughout the room.  It turned out that Kittay has its own choi, of which this man is a member. In that same pre-concert mingling, I met a man in the front row who was from my old neighborhood in Brooklyn.  We discovered that we had both gone to the same junior high school. He and his wife, who was sitting with him, were Brooklyn College graduates, class of 1944.  I told them that my mother and I were also graduates of Brooklyn College, class of 1936 and 1964 respectively.

By then, the mess was cleaned up, and we were on. This was a hard hall to sing in because of the acoustics–we could hardly hear ourselves–but the audience loved everything we performed. They sang along with This Land Is Your Land, and also with Hungarian Dance, Let There Be Peace on Earth and a few other songs.

At the end of our performance, the Kittay recreation coordinator spoke about what joy we brought to everyone and how our spirit was contagious.  (She told us earlier that she is a cantor and had looked at our website thinking she might like to join, but she couldn’t make the time commitment right now). Then she asked whether she could invite all the Kittay choir members to stand with us so she could take a picture of the two choirs together.  They made their way up front with their walkers and smiles. I asked one woman whether she sang soprano or alto, and she said, “Anything they need.”  After our photos were snapped, our two choirs did a sing-along together, with René at the piano and the audience joining in heartily.

At this, our final concert of the season, a good time was had by all. Have a great summer 2012 and we'll be back for our Fall season, with rehearsals starting in September.

-Peace of Heart Alto

It 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.

At NYPL St. Agnes Branch

It 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.

There was a heat wave outside on Thursday, June 21, but it was blissfully cool on the third floor of the recently renovated St. Agnes library on Manhattan's Upper West Side. We warmed up and performed in the same space. A man and woman arrived when we did and sat in the audience during the warmups. The man did all the exercises with us while moving his hands like a conductor.  The only part of the routine that seemed to stump him was our tongue-twister of an exercise "the-tip-of-the-tongue-the-teeth-the-lips." And when we sang Quizás as part of the warmups, the woman sang with us, contributing an extra (and extra loud) "quizás” during the rests at the beginning.

Five minutes before showtime, the house was still almost empty, but, miraculously, at 6PM people trooped in all at once and more than half the seats were filled.  (Now that I think about it, it maybe that the librarian-in-charge was holding the people outside until she thought we were ready.)

This was different from most of our community concerts in that it was open to the general public, whereas we often perform for small groups at shelters or hospitals where the audience members are residents or patients. At St. Agnes Library, some of our audience were friends and family of choir members. Two of our audience members were current choir members who, for various reasons, sat out this performance.  Also, there was former soprano Lily, beaming from her seat and joining us on stage at the end for our theme song Let There Be Peace on Earth.

There is nothing to report about this concert that was out of the ordinary.  That is a good thing.  It is ordinary for audiences to thoroughly enjoy our concerts, to be attentive to the introductions, to participate in the sing-along, and to applaud enthusiastically after each song.

We certainly brought out a lot of smiles, and when we mingled with the audience afterward, we received positive comments including "Joyful," "I love the harmonies and the arrangements," and "Come back!"

-POHC Alto

At St Luke's Psychiatric Unit

On Friday, Peace of Heart congregated in an alcove of the lobby at Roosevelt Hospital on the West Side of Manhattan. After the whole group arrived, we headed to the Volunteer Services office, where we warmed up before going to the Inpatient Psychiatric Unit to perform. With the help of the staff, we moved the very interesting piano (painted all over with flowers and supported by two paperback books, one under each front leg) to where we wanted it.  Then Rene tested it by playing various classical snippets, to the amusement of the patients who were there early and watched the set-up procedure.  The staff arranged chairs in rows, we arranged ourselves behind the piano, and the rest of the patients came in. We opened with Peace, Salaam, Shalom and followed with Higher and Higher, after which a woman called out, “Didn’t Jackie Wilson sing that?” (yes!), and so a dialogue was started between the audience and the Choir that went beyond our introductions, all of which they listened to with interest.

We did the first sing-along early on—This Land Is Your Land—and everyone participated, either by singing or clapping.  When it was over, someone shouted, “Yay, Woody!”

René’s bamboo flute introduction to the Cherokee Morning Song has been a hit with all our audiences so far, and this one was no exception. When we finished the piece, one of the patients asked what the words of the song meant.  Rene told him: “I am of the great spirit.” (Another version of the translation is thought to mean "our hearts and spirits are strong.")  The patient said that the main lyrics, “We n’ de ya ho,” sounded like “When they are whole.”  He seemed pleased when we told him that was a wonderful observation.

Guantanamera was another hit, with clapping and singing not only by the patients, but by the staff who were standing in the doorway. And when we finished the fade-out ending of Vela, someone said, “That’s gorgeous!” After, we closed with Let There Be Peace, we did the second sing-along, Down By the Riverside, and when that was over, we got a standing ovation from the patients!

They were a wonderful audience, each listening in his or her own way, and we all came away feeling good about having sung there.

- Peace of Heart Alto It 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.

YAI hosts Peace of Heart Choir!

Coming to YAI is like coming home. We love them, they love us, and the attraction never dims. This is POHC Baritone Anthony’s turf, and as always, he introduced us. We were lined up in the hall, books in our left hands, and couldn’t hear what he said, but we did hear the result: resounding applause as we entered and took our places up front. As soon as the cheers died down after our opening number, Bridge Over Troubled Water, a girl in the front row shouted out for a Spanish song, because that was her heritage.René told her one was coming later. When Barry introduced the Hungarian Rhapsody, someone knew that the third “B” name in famous composers was Brahms.

One of the choir members yelled out something about listening to the words, and sure enough, while we were in the middle of it, a girl in the second row was Ba-ba-Ba-ba-ing along with us, shaking her body in time to the music. She got tripped up when we changed tempo, but picked it up again immediately. Audiences of all ages love René’s demonstration of his bamboo flute and the pentatonic scale, and this one was no exception.

Maybe because these young adults pay such close attention and seem so interested, René told more of the story than he usually does. And so the choir learned something today, too—that Rene baked the bamboo in his oven to dry it out. It’s quite a long flute, and this choir member wondered how big his oven was. POHC Conductor and Music Facilitator Robert René Galván plays his bamboo flute.

One young man in the back suggested a few songs the choir could sing. René said they were possibilities and we would consider them, but we couldn’t do them today because we hadn’t rehearsed them. That same young man said he knew another classical song and hummed a long lick from it, which we couldn’t exactly place, but Rene said it sounded like Dvořák. The man shook his head yes and looked pleased.

They loved our two sing-along songs, This Land Is Your Land and Down By the Riverside. And what better measure of our closeness to these energetic, fully-present young adults than their knowing our routine. As Larry was introducing our closing number, before he even said the title, a young man up front said, “Let There Be Peace on Earth.” As usual, there was a party afterward, to which the choir members were invited. Good food, music and dancing, and high spirits. We will definitely be back!

-Peace of Heart Alto

It 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.