POHC Performs at NYPL St. Agnes Branch, June 21

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.

NYPL, St. Agnes Branch, where POHC performed on June 21, 2012.

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

POHC Sings at Roosevelt Hospital on Friday 6/8

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.

On Friday, June 8, POHC 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.

-POHC Alto

Welcome June! YAI Hosts POHC for Friday Night Fun

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.

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 on Friday, June 1. 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!

-POHC Alto

Singing with Seniors: POHC at Goddard Riverside Community Center, May 30

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.

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.

 

-POHC Alto

POHC Sings at Fountain House, May 19

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.

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 POHC 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.  POHC 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.

-POHC Alto

Surprises for POHC at All Saints Church Performance, May 4

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.

The May 4th POHC concert at All Saints Church, in Queens, was in many ways different from a typical POHC 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 Cantíamo 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.

-POHC Alto

POHC Welcomes Spring at St. Luke In the Fields, April 15

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.

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.

-POHC Alto