Young@Heart
The Young @ Heart chorus began in 1982 and, when it first began, the members all lived in an elderly housing project in Northampton, MA called the Walter Salvo House. The first group included elders who lived through both World Wars.
One of the members had fought in the Battle of the Somme as a 16 year old and another, Anna Main, lost her husband in the First World War. Anna was a stand-up comic who at 88 told jokes that only she could get away with.
She sang with the chorus until she was 100. This initial group also included Diamond Lillian Aubrey who toured Europe twice and wowed the audiences with her deadpan version of Manfred Mann’s Doo Wah Diddy. In later years she appeared on stage via video, performing the Stone’s You Can’t Always Get What You Want.
The current performers in Young @ Heart range in age from 72 to 88. There are some with prior professional theater or music experience, others who have performed extensively on the amateur level, and some who never stepped onto a stage before turning eighty.
None of the current performers of Y@H were part of the original group that formed in 1982, but they have kept alive the spirit of the early pioneers and continue to push the group into glorious new directions.
The already hugely acclaimed forthcoming documentary from Stephen Walker is the touching story of the group’s current members, as they put together a show, and gives a great insight into their personal lives, showing the genuine love they have for the choir and each other at such a late stage in their lives.
As innovative as it was 25 years ago, the Young @ Heart choir belt through renditions of everything from James Brown, to Sonic Youth, to Coldplay.
Although very uplifting, the film isn’t without its sadder moments and truths of elerderly life. Laced with stories such as Bob’s who, having suffered an acute spinal problem, was left temporarily without his vision, but continued to sing all day and night in his hospital bed. Or his choirmate who, at 86, has endured 6 chemotherapy courses and continues to tour Europe.
It’s a maintained sense of camerardierie and strength that keep the group as tight knit as they always have been even in the face of such trauma, including the passing of close friends and choir members.
As Fred jokes about the state of the choir, ‘We went from continent to continent before becoming incontintent’.