For many people, Christmas means music – from neighborhood caroling to Handel's Messiah. For the one hundred singers in the Champlain Valley Union High School chorus, the weeks before Christmas mean a chance to perform for appreciative audiences. For the seniors in the audience, the music is pure joy. The chorus performs at local churches, senior centers, and senior housing complexes. The winter holiday music varies from Mozart to modern composers, including a six-part version of "Oh Holy Night" and spirituals like "This Little Light of Mine" and "Keep Your Lamp Burning." Concerts in the spring emphasize jazz and folk and show tunes.
Tyler Weith, 15, a sophomore at CVU, who has signed up for each of the voluntary concerts, says, "It's fun because we get to turn all our practice into real performances, and people love it."
Carolyn Lockwood Pitkin, 83, of Charlotte is one such fan. She goes to as many of the CVU chorus concerts as she can. "The students bring such energy and life to their singing," she says. "Today, there is so much joylessness in the world. The joy of young people singing is just beautiful."
"The logistics are a challenge," admits Carl Recchia, CVU chorus director, who has been organizing the concerts for the past twenty years. Scheduled for both day times and evenings, performances are not mandatory for the students, but some 25 sign up for the day times, about 60 for the evenings. Recchia develops each program depending on the sign-up list. Although singers in any particular concert may not have sung together before, they all know the music from the 7:30 am rehearsal classes. "It's really cool because it's spontaneous," say Weith.
"I get a lot of mileage out of this work," Recchia says. "I've got wonderful kids who care," who come out for early morning rehearsal, volunteer for performances, and sing to a high standard. "Kids need to feel that what they do is valuable, and the seniors' response proves it to them."
Katelyn Smith of Williston, a senior at CVU, says that for her the audience reaction is the best part of any concert. "It's amazing how often people come up to us afterwards to let us know that we made their day," she says. "One woman approached me after a concert and told me that I reminded her of her daughter, who had died, and how she hoped that I continue to sing."
No one at the Charlotte Senior Center would willingly miss a CVU chorus performance, says Pitkin. "As soon as the students open their mouths and start to sing, the differences in our ages is transcended," she says. "We forget about our wrinkles, our various infirmities, and that we are generations apart. Their singing re-awakens in us our sense of oneness with all life – our true nature."
Coming CVU Chorus concerts (free of charge):
- December 3, 7:00pm, Allenwood at Pillsbury Manor, Shelburne Road
- December 5, 5:30pm and 6:00pm, Shelburne Bay Senior Living Community, Pine Haven Shore Road, Shelburne
- December 6, 7:30pm, Wake Robin, off Bostwick Road, Shelburne
- December 12, 11:00am, Young at Heart Senior Citizens, Shelburne United Methodist Church
- December 12, 1:00pm, Charlotte Senior Center
Information: Carl Recchia, 802- 482-7183, carl@cvuhs.org
Barbara Leitenberg writes on senior issues for the Champlain Valley Agency on Aging. This article originally appeared in the Burlington Free Press.
