With Encore Chorales, every member has a voice

SING OUT, SENIORS!

With Encore chorales, every member has a voice

(Above) Stephanie Jamieson (far left), 76, of Sharpsburg, has been singing with Encore almost since its inception, as she knew its founder, Jeanne Kelly. She sang first in Washington, D.C., and then sought out the Frederick group when she and her historian husband retired to Washington County. She has been singing tenor with this chorale for three years and loves the challenge of the music, which can often have as many as six parts.

Written by PAULETTE LEE

“Good, good!”

“You’re singing all the right notes, but it’s not musical – which syllable is more important?”

“Can I get more ‘f’ on ‘softly falls’? F’s are really hard, especially with those masks on.”

“More ‘ring’, less ‘out’!”

“Let’s bring that bright tone back!”

With high energy, animated direction, an engaging personality and impressive musical knowledge, Deborah Int Veldt of Hagerstown, conducts two Encore chorales for seniors, each with approximately 25 members, in Frederick and Gaithersburg.

Encore Creativity for Older Adults, a nonprofit organization based in Annapolis, claims to be the nation’s largest choral organization for adults over the age of 55, with more than a dozen chorales and six rock ‘n’ roll choruses in the metropolitan Baltimore-Washington area, northern Virginia and expanding into other states. Now in its 15th year, Encore has some 2,000 singers nationwide, with new programs – including one for people with early Alzheimer’s – and

Deborah and her accompanist Nick Int Veldt: The married couple have a long history of making music together. “We adore working together,” she says. “It’s the best part of our lives.”

new participants being added all the time. There are two semesters each year, each 10 weeks, costing approximately $185 per semester and all chorales sing the same music – from light pop to classical masterworks to international holiday pieces – that is presented at a semester-end community concert.

Why group singing?

From the organization’s point of view, chorale singing offers camaraderie, gives singers exposure to artistic excellence, teaches vocal and proper breathing techniques, and provides mental, emotional and physical improvements in a caring community setting. Int Veldt, who is the Musical and Choral Director for the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Frederick, Maryland, and who taught music in the Montgomery County public schools, agrees:

“Singing is so good for us on so many levels,” she says, noting she’s also a member of two choruses herself. “Chorale singing feeds my soul. The choral vibrations get into my body. There’s the actual physics of the effects of music vibrations on ourselves, the healing power of music. It’s the doing of the music that’s the most important part; your body becomes the instrument. No matter what you’re struggling with, go sing in a chorus! You’ll be sending out vibrations to someplace where healing is needed. It’s incredibly powerful.”

John Rutter, an English composer and founder of the Cambridge Singers, is quoted as saying, “When you sing, you express your soul in song, and when you get together with a group of other singers, it becomes more than the sum of the parts. All of those people are pouring out their hearts and souls in perfect harmony, which is kind of an emblem for what we need in this world, when so much of the world is at odds with itself… to express, in symbolic terms, what it’s like when human beings are in harmony.”

Access is key to Encore’s chorales. There are no auditions and singers don’t have to be experienced. The ability to read music isn’t necessary. Singers are generally seated for their 90-minute rehearsals and may also be seated during performances.

“I’ll listen to your voice,” Int Veldt says, “and by listening, I can quickly figure out where you’ll fit. You don’t have to have a better voice than someone else; plenty of people do. I’ll also work with the older voice. As we age, our tissues dry out and we lose muscle tone, and our vocal chords are controlled by many muscles, so it becomes more difficult to control them. There are ways to adjust, though; there are techniques that can help. What’s important, is that you be there.”