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.