Singing classes which double as performing groups–what’s not to love? Two groups start this week, plus private lessons in Central Square and Jamaica Plain.
The Platinum Singers at USES meet after an excellent exercise class on Wednesdays…see below for complete list of classes (and can you spot us in the little photo?)
Our Platinum Singers are going uptown! Or is it downtown? Our journey is to Copley Square sing a free program at the Boston Public Library (newly renovated). Read all about it below…fun music, as always, Beatles, folk tunes, sing alongs, and Ned Rorem…
Thursday July 14, 2-3pm, Commonwealth Salon, Boston Public Library
A new semester begins! Study Handel at NEC’s School of Continuing Education on Wednesday evenings Handel for Singers and Instrumentalists begins January 20.
Platinum Singers begin the same day, at the Harriet Tubman House. A singing class for anyone who qualifies for the AARP, and a fun group to boot. Virtually free, and you can attend a dynamite exercise class just beforehand. USES Senior services
If you want to join the JP Jubilee singing group, the wait is until February 19, 2016. Contact me for further info about this group that meets on Friday mornings, and, like the Platinum Singers, is a class and a performing group. We meet at Curtis Hall in Jamaica Plain.
BUT wait, there’s more! Private lessons with me, of course, in JP and Cambridge, AND our monthly Circle Singing group meets Sunday January 10 at St. Mary’s Church in Central Square, Cambridge. Please contact Peter McLoughlin if you’d like more info. Runs 4:30-6:30pm, fun group improvisational singing à la Bobby McFerrin.
Come hear the Platinum Singers sing a few beautiful tunes, including Wachet Auf (with guest violinist Matt Hoener and his brother Drew on keyboard) at the USES Holiday Fair. Wednesday December 9, we sing at 2:30 and you can buy trinkets before that. Harriet Tubman House, 566 Columbus at Mass Ave, Boston’s South End. Always free.
Lessons, Classes, High Holidays, time to sing!
2. United South End Settlements’
Elizabeth Anker, instructor/conductor
This is your chance! Daytime classes start Wednesday in the South End and Friday in Jamaica Plain. Both accessible by bus, parking is pretty darn good, and the teacher is really fun. Ostensibly for folks 55+, we do not card at the door.
The Platinum Singers meet Wednesdays 2-3:30 starting September 17 at the Harriet Tubman House, corner of Mass and Columbus Avenues in the South End. Nearly free: $15/12 classes, and no one is turned away for lack of funds. Contact hviarruel@uses.org to register. www.uses.org
note: no class Sept 24.
JP Jubilee begins Friday Sept 19 at 10:30 am. Flyer below
I was good in school, but bad at two things: penmanship and conduct. Got “Satisfactory” in both subjects–like a gentlewoman’s C.
I spent a lot of time in first grade in the hallway, mostly from talking. “Yes, I know the other children were talking, Liz, but we HEARD you.”
Well, I’m not sure I behave any better as an adult, but I am learning to conduct better. Conduct others, that is. Turns out, it’s a neat trick to be able to telegraph musical ideas in new ways. I’m used to singing, breathing, moving to give signals to colleagues when I’m performing. I’m accustomed to guiding the student(s) with my piano playing. Now, I am actually working with a pianist (a very good one–Megan Henderson is a singer, player and conductor herself) who will follow my gestures and take my tempi, all with a wave of a hand.
I had some great choral conductors in my life. Tom Fettke was my high school chorus teacher at Oakland High School. William F. Russell at Pomona College, Louis Magor in the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, Roger Nelson in the Port Costa Players, and Craig Smith at Emmanuel Music in Boston. All these folks LET US SING, they let us BE MUSICAL. You have no idea how many conductors try to control a group of singers and get no music made at all. Others try but are ineffective at keeping a beat or showing what they want.
The leaders who inspire me clearly LOVE their players and the music. I once sat onstage to watch Bernard Haitink conduct the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Brahms 2nd Symphony (We called it the Tweedy symphony after that because of the Dutch spelling of 2nd: Tweede). He looked at his players with such warmth and respect, and wow, did he get a sound from them.
This past weekend I heard and saw Maria Schneider and her Orchestra perform in Boston. This woman attracts the very best jazz players, folks who ordinarily wouldn’t be playing with such a big group–they are all marvelous soloists on their own. And she not only writes such beautiful arrangements, but she clearly lets them do their musical thing. Not just on their solos, but being musical partners to her tunes all through.
So as I begin my new phase of conducting these voice classes of elder adults–away from the piano, just standing and waving and breathing–I am inspired by the marvelous models above. And others. So far, so good. We sang a dress rehearsal at a senior residence this morning, and I really enjoyed just being with the music and with my group. Listening, loving, not worrying about how I was doing, being in the moment.
What a gift.
JP Jubilee in concert tomorrow night, Jamaica Plain branch library, 7:00, free. Very short program.
Platinum singers begin their summer session May 7 at the Harriet Tubman House.
The chorus at the Simon Fireman Home in Randolph is making a couple of field trips in June (one to visit the Platinum Singers, their “cousins” through me, and the other to the “Mother Ship” of Hebrew Senior Life in Roslindale.) We’re working on “Goin’ to Boston” and other tunes about Time and Place.
I hesitate to call my elder singers “cute.” But that keeps coming to mind. My mom used that word plenty and I’ve used it from everything to describe shoes, food, people and especially animals. Can’t help it. But what is NOT cute about:
It’s not that we try to act silly in class or onstage. It’s just that we are willing to let go of those carefully crafted personas we developed as we grew into adulthood. We let go of having to be in charge and set an example to the kids, the bosses, the clients.
I teach all ages and learn from them all. That’s the fun of teaching, continuing to learn. What I notice is how LITTLE my older students complain about what they cannot do or what ails them. They go on, move forward and keep growing. It inspires me to be a better conductor and pianist. So, come to one of the class concerts I’m conducting in the next few weeks. JP Jubilee is the new name for Singing for Seniors at The Boston Public Library. Our concert will be short, free and full of fun. Thursday December 5 at 7:30 pm in Jamaica Plain, see full info below.
…And The Platinum Singers are performing at the Harriet Tubman House on Wednesday, December 18 at 2:30 in the afternoon. An in-house concert of an hour with these sweeties. We just had a grand pre-Thanksgiving lunch with a terrific group called “Grandparents Raising Grandchildren”. They sang along with us and told us their stories (if we asked). Directions to the Tubman House: www.uses.org Flyer to follow shortly…
So, is there a better word than cute? Let me know and I’ll try to incorporate it…
Ah, New England in the Fall…
The Platinum Singers sang at the International Day of Peace gathering on Boston Common, September 21, 2013. I conduct/direct this fabulous group, and we had some guest singers from the Singing for Seniors at our neighborhood branch library. There were liturgical dancers, the Raging Grannies and speakers at this beautiful event. Thanks to Ghanda DiFiglia who invited us to sing here.
I learned a lot, and especially about leaning on a portable keyboard–sometimes a drum set starts up at the oddest times! And I am also learning about placing singers in front of microphones. Okay! Some of us are pretty shy about those mics.
Last night I sang at a retirement party for a faculty member at Tufts–John McDonald asked if I’d sing “Death and the Maiden”, a famous Schubert song, before a string quartet played the movement of the same name. What a great, intense and dramatic piece, all rolled into 1 1/2 minutes! I should make a career of these memorable cameos. Very satisfying. Singing about death is nothing new to this contralto. We get the sad songs all the time. Next month, I’ll be singing Bach’s take on welcoming death, Schlummert Ein (from Cantata #82, Ich Habe Genug) at a benefit for MS research. http://singtocurems.org/support/poster11-2013Q.pdf
Tuesday April 12, 2011, 1:30-2:00pm
Grand Staircase,
Massachusetts State House, Beacon Hill
The Platinum Singers, a group of elder singers with heart, voices and great attitude (see the teaching page on my site for a video of this group) will be performing as part of an art exhibit opening called Violence Transformed. www.violencetransformed.org
One of our songs is “1,000 Grandmothers” written by Holly Near.
The Platinum Singers rehearse weekly at the Harriet Tubman House of the United South End Settlements (www.USES.org). Come hear us or join us next Fall.
By the way, the fellow who made the video about our singing group (which is actually a voice class), Scott LaPierre, recently won a journalism award for his great work. Go Scott!
Elizabeth Anker 