Shortly after I moved to Rochester in 2011, I decided it was time to sing again. The last group I’d been in was in London, in the early 2000s, and I sorely missed the camaraderie and joy (although I didn’t miss some of the ‘girl’ drama...). I stumbled on the website of something called the Greater Rochester Choral Consortium, and a group called Concentus Women’s Chorus sounded interesting. So I emailed the director, and we bonded immediately – in her reply email to my audition request (which I still have…), she declared us the same “vintage” and even before auditioning me, asked “if there was anything (she) can do to help (me) feel at home in Rochester.” I knew I wanted to be accepted into this group. I also still have an excited post-audition email to my sister, exclaiming, “I found a group!” It was a bit daunting joining the chorus, not just because it’d been over a decade since I’d exercised my vocal chords. But since then, I’ve made some wonderful friends in my singing sisters and the director, Gwen. I’ve also been able to perform an old favorite (Ceremony of Carols, and I even managed to snag a solo last time!) and discover some new favorites (Cassiopeia, a song about dealing with a mother’s cancer, and Nocturne, a song about a deaf/blind person – you can listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS6EHPwtXrc).
For many singers, old age manifests itself as a slide into a widening vibrato. That is not going to be my fate, but I have different issues that I will blame on my increasing number of revolutions around the Sun, rather than simply being out of shape (higher notes cracking, less breath control, standing fatigue). So I’m not sure how many more years I will be able to sing classical music comfortably in a small ensemble (we currently have only 16 active singers, so any mistake instantly becomes an audible inadvertent solo!). I just know that I have to take advantage of whatever (quality) years I have left.
