A few months ago my husband Scott and I watched a great documentary film about The Young @ Heart Chorus, a group of talented older performers who sing their hearts out to their own versions of classic rock and roll songs.  The group began under the direction of Bob Cilman and Judith Sharpe in 1982 right here in Northampton.  Young @ Heart Chorus has toured extensively in the United States, Europe, Canada, and Australia, produced the CD “Mostly Live,” and the afore mentioned film “Young@ Heart” was featured at The Sundance Film Festival in 2006.  After learning all this about the group, we were so inspired that we knew we had to see Young at Heart  perform live.  

I have been keeping an eye out in local papers and such for about 6 months and we finally got the chance to see Young @ Heart do a live show at Chapin Auditorium at Mount Holyoke College last weekend.  The group performed a concert, with special guests Unit 7 and Nate Fuller and the Dukes, to benefit Hospice of the Fisher Home, an orgaization providing compassionate end of life care to people in the Pioneer Valley.  

The current members of Young @ Heart range in age from 73 to 89; some of them have previous stage experience, but many had never been before an audience until they had turned 80.  The show opened with Nate Fuller and the Dukes, a group of young performers who knocked us out with their covers of classic rock tunes and their unbounded energy.  After the great warm-up, we were really excited to see Young @ Heart and the group did not disappoint!  They came dancing up through the aisle of the auditorium and had the packed house on their feet immediately singing grat songs like Dancin’ in the Dark, Walk on the Wild Side, Road to Nowhere, and I Wanna Be Sedated.  Midway through the show Unit 7 played some great tunes, which they describe as “Speakeasy Music for the 21st Century,” then Young @ Heart took the stage again to finish out the night.  We had such an amazing time at the concert and came away feeling happy, inspired, and wanting more!

Tags: Chapind Auditorium, Fisher Home, Hospice, Mount Holyoke, Nate Fuller and the Dukes, Unit 7, Young @ Heart

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