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Community Corner

The Simsbury Senior Choir is Getting "In the Mood"

The Intonations are practicing for a concert with the SHS concert choir on April 13.

The Simsbury Senior Choir, known as “The Intonations,” is practicing for its spring concert coming up on Wednesday, April 13 at 2 p.m. in the Eno Memorial Hall auditorium. The concert is with the Simsbury High School Concert Choir. Both choirs will perform alone and then in a collaboration, singing songs from the swing era like “It Don’t Mean a Thing, If It Ain’t Got That Swing,” “Sentimental Journey,” “Blue Moon” and “In the Mood.”

“This song needs a top hat and a cane,” said Jerry Epstein, choir member, as the choir stopped to make adjustments in their key. “Gonna get mellow, when that fellow, blows his horn down where the blues are born” they all sang while University of Hartford professor Greg Babal, the choir’s instructor, played piano and led them on Wednesday afternoon’s regular practice at the senior center.

“So we’re doing a ‘hey!’ there? A ‘hey’ instead of a ‘do’?” asked Babal of the jovial choir. It is obvious he has a warm relationship with the members as they joked about needing to magnify the music sheets a bit more and surprised him by singing Happy Birthday to him, as it was his birthday.

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Evelyn Christensen, an original senior choir member from West Simsbury, has been coming to practice and performing for more than 25 years and she has another connection to Simsbury as well.

“I grew up at Flamig Farm and our son is running the farm now. He is the fourth generation,” Christensen said.

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When asked about why she keeps coming back and singing with the choir, Christensen added, "the people, the songs, the singing, the exposure to culture. … Another thing I enjoy so much is we go to the nursing homes and sing. They enjoy it so much.”

Choir member Dick Smith has been participating for more than 22 years. He joined as soon as he retired. Chris Frazier has been a member for about 12 years and talked about how singing keeps her young and how she likes the contemporary music Babal brings.

Likewise another veteran choir member Edna Shreindorfer explained, “I love to sing and the sociability is great and going to convalescent homes, especially the Alzheimer’s ward. They look up when you sing.”

Joe Leyland, a newer choir member, expressed his appreciation for tunes he used to dance to when he was a teenager.

“I like the camaraderie, the opportunity to work on something that has decent results,” he said. “We are a bunch of old fogeys in our eighties, and I was surprised at how good we sound.”

The choir will continue to practice for the April 13 event that already has at least 50 people signed up to attend. The Simsbury High School concert choir, directed by Katie Zahara of the music department, will be practicing as well.

After the event, the seniors and students will enjoy a pizza together, a little bit wiser of what the young and old have in common, the simple joy of singing.

“It’s a great collaboration,” said Simsbury Senior Center coordinator Kathy Marschall.

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