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.

At Goddard Riverside Community Center

Yes, it was lunchtime, but several POHC singers were able reschedule mid-day plans and made our concert at Goddard Riverside Community Center a huge success. We sang in a large lunchroom where the seniors who attend the Senior Center were sitting at tables after recently eating lunch. One woman shouted out as we walked in, “We were waiting for you!” This was one of our larger audiences, and they were very responsive--to familiar songs, like Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water and to less-familiar songs as well. They liked all of our introductions too, in particular the one to Cherokee Morning Song, where René explained the pentatonic scale and demonstrated how his flute doubles as a weapon.

The two sing-along songs were hits—Down By the Riverside and This Land is Your Land. Almost everyone joined enthusiastically, some from memory, some using the lyric sheets we handed out. As we have done in past seasons when singing Down By The Riverside, we went out into the audience to shake hands with people during the verse "Gonna shake hands around the world...Down by the Riverside." Some seniors also sang with us during the non-sing-along songs, especially when we sang the POHC theme song Let There Be Peace On Earth.

After the concert, one woman said to me, “This was inspirational. Nostalgic.” Another said, “It gives me goose bumps. It gives us energy--how do you say--to get up the next day.” Another woman kissed me and said thank you. Still another said, “Please come again” and I assured her we would.

-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 Fountain House

The fifth-floor wellness unit has been refurbished since the last time we were at Fountain House;, with artistic tube-lamps hanging from the ceiling. What remains the same is the airy feeling of the room with large north-east facing windows and the pots of fresh basil and parsley on the windowsill. We had an audience of about five for our warmups, and I saw some smiles when we got to "the-tip-of-the-tongue-the-teeth-the-lips." We finished the warmups by running through some songs, with René stopping us here and there to re-do a few measures. The audience seemed interested in these rehearsal proceedings. We began the concert proper with our rendition of Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water, and as we progressed from song to song, the audience grew. By the end of the concert, it numbered fourteen.

We have sung for a Fountain House audience before. They are not effusive, but they are definitely with us in a low-key way. They paid attention when René introduced the Cherokee Morning Song by demonstrating his bamboo flute—showing them how it doubles as a weapon and explaining the way he made it. A few swayed back and forth as we sang the song, with Jeanette—mom of Peace of Heart choir Baritone Anthony—filling in on the shakers. Barry introduced the Hungarian Rhapsody by saying, “There are three famous B-named composers in music: Bach, Beethoven, and...” Several people shouted out “Brahms!”

Larry reached not only the audience, but the choir as well, when he read all the words of the POHC theme song, Let There Be Peace On Earth, as if it were a prayer. The room was hushed, and every eye was on him, including those of a man who had been facing the back of the room and reading a book. An uplifting, spiritual feeling pervaded the room. There was a brief silence after Larry finished, and then we began singing the words he had just spoken. It was a moment that could not have been rehearsed. After the concert, the audience members wanted to take pictures with us, so we posed with them.

Soprano Angela Szpak put on her Miss Plus New York banner, and they flocked to take pictures with her, too.

We all left with a good feeling.

-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.

Surprises at All Saints Church

The concert at All Saints Church, in Queens, was in many ways different from a typical concert: 1) We got to meet the children from one of René’s other choirs--girls from kindergarten through middle school--who do the same warmups we do. Not only the arm and ribcage stretches, but the arpeggios and modified scales,and "the-tip-of-the-tongue-the-teeth-the-lips." It was like finding out your parent has another family whom you’ve never met, and further finding out that the other family has the same routines you do!

2) The audience did not "need" our ministering. They were well and happy people, mostly parents and siblings of the girls from the children’s choir. (It was a full house--standing room only.)

3) We were in the borough of Queens, where we don’t usually sing. Most of our concerts take place all around Manhattan, some in the Bronx, and a few in Brooklyn. It had been a while since we performed in Queens. As our Steering Committee Co-Chair Larry told the audience, he, himself, had never been to Queens before (then he added, almost under his breath, “I guess I have; I came here through Kennedy airport”).

4) Our very own Soparano, Angela Szpak, surprised us by singing an operatic solo, The Italian Street Song, by Victor Herbert.  She sparkled. She dazzled.  She brought the house down. Go, Angela!

5) We joined voices with Cantí

amo Youth Chorus and sang Cherokee Morning Song and Peace, Salaam, Shalom.  For a blended family that just came together for the first time, we did pretty well.

6) We got to see René in martial arts persona when he transformed his handmade bamboo flute into a graceful, baton-line weapon. Who knew?

7) We found out that the song Peace, Salaam, Shalom has clap-along possibilities.

This was a heartwarming concert. The church was lovely. We sang well, and we got to meet the children we’d been hearing about for so long. We thank the church, the families, and their children for having us. -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 In the Fields

It was a triple kickoff day! Not only was it The POHC inaugural concert of the Spring season at St. Lukes of the Fields, but our concert was part of the kickoff for Sing New York, and we debuted POHC’s ad hoc accompanist (and singing member), Marv. We sang in the lovely church of St. Luke in the Fields, on one of the quieter streets in Greenwich Village. Call time was 3:00pm. POHC Tenor Gary was out front directing us: walk through the little garden to the back entrance, then go on a follow-the-yellow-brick-road adventure around corridors and down stairs to the choir room in the basement, where we did most of our warm-up. The last part of the warm-up was upstairs in the chapel itself, where we were to perform.

There was a smattering of people in the audience—maybe ten or fifteen—sitting in widely separated seats, most in the back. They clapped for all the warm-up songs. Then it was 4:00pm, time for the real performance. Since we were already in formation, we didn’t go offstage and come back on. Steering Committee Co-Chair Larry just announced to the audience that the warm-up was over and the performance would begin, and they would hear the same songs again. They were cool with that.

René’s flute behaved, and Marv accompanied us for our version of The Pretenders' I’ll Stand By You, leaving René free to conduct. The audience was small but enthusiastic. They listened to all the introductions and clapped for all the songs the second time around, too. I found Larry’s comments about Simon Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water most interesting—how he first heard the song in the late 1960s in South Africa, and the next morning sang what he remembered of the melody to the proprietor of a record store because he didn’t remember the name of the song. The proprietor knew what song it was and Larry came away with a 33-rpm record. Years later, Larry was in Trafalgar Square in London when Nelson Mandela came to talk, and they played Bridge Over Troubled Water that day, too.

There was another group performing after we finished, and some of us stayed for that. All in all, despite the small audience, it was an auspicious beginning to our season.

-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.

Peace of Heart featured on GeNYU Blog

Back in September 2011, POHC commemorated the 10th Anniversary of 9/11 and the 10th Anniversary of the formation of our choir. We participated in several events during the weekend of September 11, 2011, and were featured in various news outlets. There was one article about POHC that was under the radar until now, check it out at GeNYU, and NYU journalism blog covering the beat for Generation Y. Check it out! Peace of Heart Choir Brings Peace of Mind

At the YAI

It's a great way to start 2012 when you can spend a Friday night with friends at YAI, a network serving people with disabilities and their families. We warmed up in a classroom that had a “NO SINGING ALLOWED” poster on the bulletin board.  (We took a group picture with it, if anyone has the photo, please email it to peaceofheartchoir@gmail.com.)  Then, POHC Baritone Anthony went into the performance room to introduce the choir.  None of us in the hall heard what he said, but we walked in to enthusiastic applause and waving hands, so it must have been good.René didn’t say much when he introduced our first number, just that it was Seasons of Love from Rent, but it was enough to evoke cheers from the audience. One young lady in the front row sang the entire song with us.

The YAI young adults are, without a doubt, our most enthusiastic and energetic audience. They are fully engaged, listening to the songs with concentration, rocking, clapping, and occasionally singing along. After I introduced 7 Principles and said it was in both English and Swahili, one young man said he could count in Swahili and recited the numbers one through ten. Now it was the choir’s turn to applaud him.

The young men and women loved the idea that we were going to sing two songs at the same time: Night of Silence and Silent Night. We invited them to sing along with the Silent Night part. When we did the German version, I saw the same young lady in the first row listen for the first sound of every word, then mouth it and copy what we were saying. Some choir members talked to her later, and found that she is interested in auditioning with us.

Ocho Kandalikas proved to be a clap-along, with René revving up the audience–they clapped faster and faster, so we had to sing faster and faster. Good thing we warmed up with our repetative exercise “the tip of the tongue, the teeth, the lips.”

René had decided not to do Feliz Navidad, because it was too long after Christmas, but one girl kept asking for a Spanish song, and that was the only one we had this season, so we obliged her. Others sang along, and the girl who asked for it was extremely pleased.

It would be an understatement to say that the YAI young adults loved everything we did. They listened to all the intros and clapped for them. They were up on popular culture, telling us some things we didn’t know. Everything they called out was relevant, including that the founder of Kwanza was Dr. Karenga. One young man wanted to know if the song Ocho Kandalakis was in Hebrew, and we said it was in Ladino, a mixture of Spanish and Hebrew.

As they always do, they invited us to the party afterward. The refreshments were quite elaborate—rolled sandwiches in tortilla bread, cookies, crudites, chips, drinks...

Thanks, YAI. You give us a real lift. Happy New Year to all! -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 Park Avenue Armory

Between the hustle and bustle of Hanukkah and Christmas, POHC members from all around the city gathered to sing at the Women's Mental Health Shelter at the Park Avenue Armory, part of the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House organization. Those of us who found our way into the fortress via the Park Avenue entrance wound up on the third floor. Those who entered through the side door on 67th Street wound up in the basement.  Each group wondered when the others were going to show up.  Thank you to our Communications Coordinator and Baritone member Robert, for finally uniting us. We warmed up in a side room where some kind elf had left cookies and apple cider for us, along with a thank you note. Then we went into the cafeteria to perform.  There were only a handful of people there, so the woman in charge announced over the PA system that there would be a concert, and a few more women came in.We opened with Seasons of Love—no introduction, just singing.  One or two women swayed; most just sat with no expression.  The applause was appreciative but mild.  Then a woman called out, “Can I ask a question? Was that fromRent?”  René said it was, and the ice was broken.

Next came Ocho Kandelikas, (Eight Candles, a Hanukkah song in Ladino) introduced by René. One woman sang the counting part with us. Our sound must have traveled to the dormitory rooms off the sides of the long hall outside the cafeteria, because little by little, more women drifted in.

Julie filled in for Megan with Silver Bells, with many audience members now singing along with us. After we finished Night of Silence/Silent Night, another woman called out that her former husband used to be in a choir, and he sang Silent Night during every concert he did.  As we introduced each song, the connection between the audience and the choir grew. They especially loved Alex’s intro to California Dreamin. When we got to the “Gonna shake hands around the world” part of Down By the Riverside, some choir members went into the audience to shake hands while we sang, and all the women extended their hands to us.

Our effect on these women was palpable.  Some faces brightened right away.  Some took three or four songs before they were pulled in.  But by the end of the evening, all had let go of the history they had come into the room with and let themselves become totally involved in the moment.

As we were walking out at the end, I told one woman I saw her singing the German lyrics to Silent Night, and she said she used to live in Hamburg and her husband is from Sicily.  The woman sitting next to her said, “I feel as if you just got started.  I could go on and on.” Another great concert, POHC.  This is what we're all about.

-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 The Times Square, a Common Ground Residence

After a successful Winter Fundraising Concert on Sunday, December 18, POHC got back to business with a Community Concert on Wednesday, December 21. This was our second concert at The Times Square, the nation's largest permanent supportive housing project for low-income and formerly homeless individuals and persons living with HIV/AIDS, operated by Common Ground. After warming up in a tiny basement room where we left the door open and serenaded the people in the computer room next door, we went up to the spacious fifteenth floor ballroom to sing to more than 100 residents at their holiday party.  The MC for the evening, complete with clip board and Santa hat, told us there was a small band on before us, and he didn’t want any break in the entertainment—we were to go on the minute the band ended.

We walked in while they were playing their last number, an instrumental rendition of Jingle Bells, so we provided an impromptu vocal accompaniment, threading our way through people finishing their dinners as we sang our way to the front.  By the end of the song, we were already in formation.  There couldn’t have been a more seamless transition from one act to the next.

From our first number, Seasons of Love, we had their attention.  When René introduced Ocho Kandelikas (Eight Candles, a Hanukkah song in Ladino) he said we would get faster and faster with the addition of each candle. One man shouted, “Go for it!”  Indeed, every time we came to the "uno-dos-tres" line, there was a woman singing it right along with us.

The audience was polite during the opening measures of Silver Bells, not realizing what song it was until we got to the “City sidewalks, Busy sidewalks” familiar melody, and then they applauded--even though it was the beginning of the song.

All the song introductions got applause.  They were especially rapt when Judith explained the Kwanzaa song, Seven Principles, and they sang along with many, including Silent Night and Let There Be Peace On Earth.

As we were making our exit, doing a reverse threading through the tables, many audience members thanked us personally.  One man said, “Thank you.  I mean really, thank you so much!”  Another gave high-fives to those of us who walked past his table. Go POHC!

-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.