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.