About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 2020)
Nick Bowman Features Editor | 770-718-3426 | life@gainesvilletimes.com She (Times gainesvilletimes.com Friday, February 21,2020 Photos by STEVE MELLON I Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Music director Susan Medley directs a rehearsal of the Pittsburgh Concert Choral at Ingomar United Methodist Church in Ingomar on Tuesday, Jan. 28. 1 in 6 Americans sings in a choir, and they may be healthier for it From left, Marra Boyd of Cranberry, Whitney Wright of McCandless and Jackie Kulfan of Mars join about 100 other singers during a rehearsal of the Pittsburgh Concert Choral at Ingomar United Methodist Church in Ingomar on Tuesday, Jan. 28. BY JEREMY REYNOLDS Pittsburgh Post-Gazette PITTSBURGH — Laughter erupted as members of the Pittsburgh Concert Chorale warmed up their voices and lips with scales and raspberries at Ingomar United Method ist Church. Then the choir got down to busi ness as wisecracking director Susan Medley drilled the singers on harmony and rhythm with an infectious sense of merriment. The chorus is just one of many community choirs around Pittsburgh that exist for the sheer joy of singing. Membership has risen lately to about 100 singers ranging in age from recent college graduates to retirees in their 80s. Some have sung professionally, but most are amateurs. They come from all over the area and from various political backgrounds. It’s no secret that America’s social fab ric is unraveling. Participation in churches and religious institutions is down. Fraternal organizations are shrinking. Marriage rates continue to decline. Voting is up, but volun teering is down. The differences dividing us seem greater than the similarities. Yet group singing is gaining popular ity. While participation in church choirs is declining, more than 17% of adults in the U.S. participate in a choir of some sort, up from 14% in 2008. That’s about 1 in 6 adults, according to a recent study by the service organization Chorus America. The study identifies numerous reasons: Singing in groups has been linked to bet ter mental and physical health, a sense of belonging and feeling connected to others, better social skills, increased civic engage ment and volunteering, developing leader ship skills and much more. “Increasingly, people are thinking about constructive ways to bridge some of the gaps between people, and they’re looking at issues that exist in societies today,” said Liza Beth, vice president of communications and membership at Chorus America. “How can this art form that we love con tribute to healthy vibrant aging? The peo ple who love this also see this as a really important tool to address things they see in society.” She said choirs are springing up around the country dedicated to serving specific areas such as hospice facilities, aging adults or homeless people. In Pittsburgh, choral groups ranging from community to professional have reported increased attendance or applications, and new choirs are forming all the time. Stewart Copeland, former drummer of The Police, has partnered with the Mendels sohn Choir of Pittsburgh to create a new oratorio, “Satan’s Fall.” The new work fol lows Lucifer’s fall from grace as imagined by John Milton in “Paradise Lost” and will premiere on Friday and Saturday at the Rox- ian Theater in McKees Rocks. This collaboration is another in a string of creative programming by the Mendelssohn, which has also presented a Bob Dylan ora torio and a concert exploring Pittsburgh’s Underground Railroad connections. The Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh is preparing to launch a new initiative to cre ate grassroots choirs in senior centers. Then there’s the Bach Choir of Pittsburgh, Pitts burgh Camerata, Renaissance City Choir, the Voice Givers Choir, Greater Harmony Chorus, Belle Voci, Pittsburgh Threshold Choir, Sounds of Pittsburgh, Vocal Conflu ence and others. “There’s a real sense of family there, a real sense of community,” said Matthew Mehaffey, music director of the Mendels sohn, which has a core group of 20 paid sing ers and about 100 others. The choir regularly performs with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. “There’s always a group that heads for a happy hour after rehearsals on Wednesday, and everybody is incredibly welcoming to new members,” he said. At the Pittsburgh Concert Chorale’s weekly rehearsal, Medley mixed disciplined practice (“Let’s check that chord!”), aerobic exercise (“Stand up... now sit down!... Stand again!”) and lighthearted banter to keep things mov ing (“If you’re absolutely terrified of singing that high B, please email me later”). “They’re a great group. If I asked them to sing on their head they would,” said Medley, also director of choral activities at Washing ton & Jefferson College in Washington, Pa. “Choir singing is this unique tradition that gives people a place to belong. You don’t need training. It’s just about making some thing positive and beautiful with friends.” Most of the amateur organizations rehearse just once a week in the evening. Many members started singing in grade school or high school or a church choir, but singing in a community choir doesn’t require formal training. Just a low-pressure audition with the director and a willingness to be a team player. “People run the gamut politically, but we leave that at the door,” Ms. Medley said. “We’re here to make music.” The Chorus America study found that older choral singers reported a better qual ity of life and better overall health than non singers they knew. Nearly three-quarters of choir members said singing helps them feel less alone or lonely. “One of the most striking findings in our study was that choral singers are more likely to volunteer and serve in leadership posi tions. It’s a hugely civically engaged popula tion,” Ms. Beth said. Bernie Heisey has sung with the Mendels sohn and Bach choirs and is currently a member of the Pittsburgh Concert Chorale. “I can have a terrible day, but coming to choir practice just makes it better,” she said. “Being around these people is the highlight of my week.” The singers in the Concert Chorale and the Mendelssohn Choir represent a diverse array of occupations, including doctors, law yers and engineers. Some join for a brief period; others make it a lifelong passion. A few have met significant others or spouses in choirs. Some members tour overseas; the Concert Chorale plans to visit Leipzig, Salz burg and Vienna in 2021. “I think people are looking for meaning in the world,” Mehaffey said. “To have the chance if you’re not in a creative field to come and make something beautiful that you couldn’t make by yourself — there’s something immediate and visceral about choirs. The breathing becomes synchro nized. It’s almost spiritual.” Plants need chill hours to rest, help them blossom The rain finally subsided a couple of weeks ago for a moment and instead turned North Georgia into a temporary winter wonder land. We really haven’t had much of a winter since Christmas and this can have a long-term effect on our flora. Most nonannual plants in our region need some relief from the heat and active growing, so in the winter months they go into dormancy. This is a gradual pro cess that begins when the days get shorter and the temperatures begin to drop. Some plants begin setting their buds, shedding their leaves or even die back to the ground. When a plant finally goes into dormancy, it is able to defend itself against harsh conditions like snow and ice as well as experience a necessary down time. A period of chilling is required CAMPBELL VAUGHN ecvaughn@uga.edu for a plant to blossom. And with a blossom, there is fruit. This chilling requirement is usually expressed with the term “chill hours.” One chill hour is equal to one hour at or below the chilling temperature. Some plants have a chilling temperature that is below freezing, some may need to be fewer than 45 degrees Fahrenheit while others may only need to be under 60 F. If a plant does not obtain its required chilling hours, it either may not flower at all or flower much less. Less flowers means less fruit. There are two stages of chilling, and the first stage is reversible. As the season starts to cool down and a plant is getting ready for its period of dormancy, if the temperature warms up for an extended period then the plant slows its dormancy preparation. In that case, no chill hours are recorded (picture a squirrel tak ing notes from its nest while using his Brookstone Indoor/ Outdoor Wireless Thermometer and a led ger). The second stage of chilling is irreversible. At some point, a plant is committed to dormancy. When the weather reaches a certain temperature or a cer tain period of time at or below a specific temperature, a plant will commit itself to dormancy. Even if things warm up some, the plant will remain dormant until other triggers cause it to break this phase. If the temperatures are low enough or long enough throughout the winter, then the plant will be able to emerge in the spring and blossom prolifi- cally. If the weather is like this past winter and not cold at all, then we may get little or even no flowering, which leads to poor fruiting. University of Georgia has a statewide weather network that is a great source for facts and fig ures and historical climate data on the website georgiaweather. net. There is actually a station in Gainesville. To research chilling hours on this website is easy. Our chill hour season runs from Oct. 1 to April 15. The standard chill hour temperature in Georgia is 45 F. This chill season, Gaines ville has already had 1,036 hours in the bank as of Feb. 17. This is a couple of hundred less chill hours this season than the past two years, but I think we are still on track to have a good apple crop. Blackberries, pears, persim mons, muscadine and plums are also good producers in our area. Make sure to check the chilling requirements for the particular cultivar of fruit when deciding to invest in edible plantings for your landscape. If you have been praying for rain lately, please stop. Campbell Vaughn is an agriculture and natural resource agent with the University of Georgia Extension in Augusta. He can be reached at ecvaughn@uga.edu.
