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Aging in Harmony: Pasadena Village and Encore Creativity

“Sing out Louise!” is the frequent prompt from Mama Rose to her timid daughter in the classic Broadway musical, “Gypsy!” by Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim.

But, without the needy demands of America’s ultimate stage mother, Pasadena Villagers have been gathering for almost a year at Trinity Lutheran Church to sing out together with other local neighbors as part of the Encore Chorale of Pasadena.

Last June, readers got an early glimpse of the Encore Chorale from Judith Ray’s excellent Newsletter entry, and much has happened since the launch of this singing partnership between the Village and the national organization for creative aging, Encore Creativity.  Close to 25 Village members have taken up this opportunity for choral singing, from those totally inexperienced in group work (including this writer, a proud and croaky Tenor), to Villagers with long prior and continuing backgrounds in choirs, chorales and individual performance.

Our partnership with Encore Creativity in the emergence of this Chorale grew out of President Dick Myers’ friendship with Michael C. Patterson, a long-time researcher on creativity and aging. Patterson pointed us toward Encore and its ground-breaking work in establishing national singing choral programs across 11 states and, as of this week, has some 2500 singers over 55 years old in regular weekly sessions in Rock, Broadway and classic Chorale repertoires.  Encore also sponsors two additional program tracks for aging populations at different stages of dealing with memory issues.

Village members have followed much of the global research on healthy aging, and that study has, in fact, helped to shape the vision and purpose of our organization.  What’s intriguing is the particular value of singing in the company of others in our choral experiment.  We’re hoping to informally track the ways our singing together does much more than make beautiful music.

The Encore research has already documented that Seniors involved in weekly choral activities experience fewer falls, lower medication use and enhanced social connections.  Who in the Village wouldn’t want those outcomes?

My own journey over this year might be one good case study in the creative benefits of choral singing for Seniors. I am, or was, musically illiterate, with only some pick-up streetcorner harmonizing in my very distant NYC youth. Actually, until this Pasadena Encore experience, I didn’t know how to harmonize, but I knew I liked the sound of melded voices.  

Thanks to the genius of our conductor Holly Barber, I’ve not only learned the mechanics of making harmony, but how choral singing works in the brain, in the ear, and in the heart. Holly’s gifted leadership, unlike bossy Mama Rose in Gypsy!, is always built on a “you can do this” and “we can get there” pedagogy. As a former educator, I spend a lot of our sessions marvelling at her musical teaching virtuosity.

Learning how one voice emerges from many, learning how to ‘stay in your lane’ so your part (soprano, alto, tenor and bass) becomes an element of something greater–these are some of the benefits I’ve been enjoying, and are inseparable from being a Pasadena Villager, too.  For me, choral singing is new creative territory; for other Village singers, it’s a crucial return to their creative pasts.

Here, for instance, is testimony from two veteran current singers about their Encore Chorale experience:

Carolyn M writes: Through Encore, I’m getting the opportunity to reinvigorate what vocal capacity still remains to me at 75 and also to recall and once again enjoy a greater breadth of music.  In my limited scope of musical participation for the last many years, it has been a long time since I encountered any musical challenges, and I’m really enjoying the experience of once again learning new music and disciplining myself to read and carefully follow the music as written instead of just going my own merry way.  I do also see some slight physical improvements in the area of breath control and vocal flexibility.  The social experience has been good as well. I’ve made a new friend through carpooling from North Hollywood for rehearsals, and am also enjoying meeting the other singers, most of whom I would never have encountered any other way.  Our conductor is absolutely wonderful, and makes every singer feel valued and seen, not to mention her formidable skills as both a musician and a teacher. 

Cindy R, who’d sung with Encore in DC and moved to our area:  Singing with Encore has clearly enhanced my mental well-being--first as I was newly retired and looking for new activities to fill my time, and  then later by giving me a new community of friends at my new location. That support from others makes a difference.  My new Encore friends in Pasadena walked with me through two hip replacements within a period of five months!  I also have found that from the standpoint of technique in singing, the discipline of just going to our weekly rehearsals, doing the breathing exercises, and working on pieces we can master over a semester, has been beneficial.   Encore has given me the time to work on the skills that have made me a better singer.  And it is amazing to me how in the course of just one year, thanks to this process and our great conductor Holly, our Pasadena Encore Chorale has grown and improved.

Our ally Michael Patterson reminds us that the desire to create is joyful. As he’s written, “the urge to create doesn’t diminish with age. It deepens. The longer we live, the more we have to say–and the more we long to be heard.”

So, as hundreds of Villagers paint, sketch, declaim poetry and engage in other manifold forms of creative aging every month, we are weaving a shared fabric that makes us healthier and happier, safer against loss, illness, loneliness.

Sing out!

You can see the Pasadena Encore Chorale perform on Saturday, May 9 at Trinity Lutheran Church, 997 East Walnut Street, Pasadena at 3:00 p.m.