Savy savy.jpg
IFPA award ifpaaward.jpg
They ‘Miss You’ Young-at-Heart-2.jpg

They ‘Miss You’

Young@Heart brings benefit concert online Oct. 3

By Debbie Gardner
debbieg@thereminder.com

They wowed European audiences on their whirlwind tour through 12 countries in 1996, been the subject of a well-respected documentary released in 2008, and recently earned a spot on CNN’s Facebook page, doing a live stream of their cover of Simon & Garfunkel's “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” on Sept. 17 for journalist John Berman.

And on Oct. 3  at 7:30 p.m., the Young @Heart chorus would like to come into your home with “Miss You,” a free virtual concert and album release celebration. This long-awaited show features performances and music videos of songs from their newest CD, which drops the day before on Oct. 2. The Zoom event also replaces the choruses’ usual fundraisers, cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Miss You,” will “be the first time fans around the globe can enjoy a Young @Heart performance together,” according to the group’s website. The concert experience promises many extras, including an “online auction, special celebrity appearances, world premiere music videos, and much more.” Among the special guests slated to appear at the Oct. 3 concert are David Byrne from the band Talking Heads, actress Edie Falco from “The Sopranos” and “Nurse Jackie,” actor Larry David from “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” Paul Shaver, band leader for the David Letterman show, the band Los Lobos, Dee Snider from the band Twisted Sister and CNN journalist John Berman.

To view the show’s trailer, purchase a VIP ticket to help the fundraiser, bid on an auction item or simply donate to support this remarkable group of performers – all over the age of 75 – visit https://youngatheartchorus.com/ and click on the “Register for ‘Miss You’ now” button. You do not need to purchase a  VIP ticket to enjoy the performance, however!

A new album, in a pandemic

Bob Cilman, who has directed this remarkable group of performers for 38 years – "I was a 29 year old baby when I started,” he joked with Prime – said the group ran a kickstarter campaign to produce their latest album last fall.

“It had been eight years and we had so much good material that we had not put on a CD” that the time seemed right to put out a new album, Cilman said. Then the pandemic hit. “We had planned to put it out in May, but then [COVID-19] hit and we got sidetracked trying to learn to communicate through Skype,” Cilman said.

As members of the most vulnerable age group – you have to be at least 75 years old to join Young@Heart – and participants in a known coronavirus super spreading activity, singing – the choral group had to find a new way to keep practicing and performing. Cilman told Berman during the Sept. 17 CNN live stream interview that it only took a “long weekend” to get 25 of the Young@Heart members to “open up the computers and laptop their kids had given them” and get comfortable communicating online. The chorus of 20 singers and seven band members now rehearse twice a week via Zoom, with each member singing  or performing their part in their own home.

The show must go on

Members of Young @ Heart admit rehearsing – and putting together a show through Zoom – has been a different experience. Newcomer Sonia Nieto – she’s only been with Young @ Heart for two years – said as soon as the coronavirus hit, it was clear to chorus members that they had to find a new way to get together.

“It’s been pretty amazing how the tech people have created this thing,” Nieto, who will be performing “It” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers on Oct. 3, said. “It's just unbelievable what they have been able to do.”

Norman Moreau, a member of Young @ Heart for six and a half years, said adjusting to the Zoom rehearsals leading up to the Oct. 3 concert “certainly was different, I’ll tell you that – but it's fun – you see what you can do when you have someone directing you properly and it comes together and it's really nice.” The 87–year–old will be performing “Splendid Isolation” by Warren Zevon on Oct. 3. “It fits right in with the season we’re in,” Moreau noted.

Byron Ricketts, Jr. said this Zoom concert might be a bit more casual than some of the ones Young @Heart fans are used to, as everyone will be performing from their own homes.

“No one had given us a dress code yet,” he joked, but he’s looking forward to the experience. He’ll be performing “Hello In There,” by John Prine. “Bob has a knack for picking out a song for a particular person and once you get it, it fits you,” Ricketts said. “He’s fantastic at that – you may get mad at him, but he knows what he sees – he has all these thing in his mind and when they come together – there’s the show.”