Young@Heart’s next concert isn’t just a show — it’s a clarion call to the community to wake up and fight for American democracy.
Young@Heart Chorus will perform “10-Alarm Fire: We Won’t Shut Up!!” at the Academy of Music on Sunday, Nov. 23 at 3 p.m. The concert, according to a press release, is the group’s “most urgent show yet — protest songs spanning continents and decades, sung in the here and now.”
“This is not nostalgia,” the press release said. “This is necessity. This is not a quiet show. It’s a performance filled with defiance by people who’ve lived long enough to know what’s at stake. Young@Heart has never been afraid to take risks.” At ages 75 and up, the group has “seen enough to know how important it is to speak up.”
The program will include songs by Rage Against the Machine, Woody Guthrie, Marvin Gaye, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Fiona Apple, The Pogues, and more. Executive Director Bob Cilman didn’t want to share the exact list of songs, but he said they were “not your typical protest songs, but songs that really express our concern. … We’re calling it ‘a cacophony of concern.’”
“This is a show that’s going to come from our hearts,” Cilman said.
Plus, he said, “It turns out that most musicians that we’re familiar with, at one point in their lives, wrote a song that really fits this show, had something to say about the fear of losing our voices in the way that we have fear for now … It’s a real wide range of musicians, but at some point in their life, they wanted to say, ‘Enough is enough.’”
The set, likewise, will be a surprise, but it’s “very simple, but very powerful,” Cilman said. The costumes are ‘30s- and ‘40s-style trench coats and fedoras — “something different than anybody’s ever seen the chorus in before.”
Cilman’s idea for putting this show together was “the times that we’re living in,” which “seem a little bit more dangerous than anything we’ve experienced,” he said, “and we’ve been around this planet a long time.”
“The chorus is an interesting group of people because they’re not all of the same mind. It’s not like we have the same politics, but I think everybody has the same fear that things are going in a direction that we don’t really feel comfortable with,” he continued.
Chorus member Paula Parsky echoed Cilman’s sentiments.
“Our country has never had this degree of control, concern, by the government, and I’m concerned about [the] Constitution and about individual freedoms, and [it’s] kind of scary,” she said. “In a way, I’m glad I’m old. I wouldn’t want to be a kid growing up in this.”
“If we don’t take action now, we’ll settle for nothing later,” said chorus member Jim Ireland. “Everyone needs to do something.”
This isn’t the first time the chorus has done a show with a political tone. In 1988, they performed “Oh No, A Condo,” featuring refugees from Pol Pot’s regime. In 1994 and 1995, they performed two shows called “Flaming Saddles” with the Pioneer Valley Gay Men’s Chorus. In any case, Cilman said, the the show themes were meant to bring people together that wouldn’t normally get together.
“We want people to know they’re not alone, that what they’re feeling is kind of universal at the moment … We’ve always chosen to work with people who needed to be acknowledged by this community,” he said. “In this case, we’re really speaking to a major part of this community that feels, I think, a little bit concerned.”
And for this performance in particular, the group wants its impact to reach beyond the confines of the theater. As part of this show, Young@Heart is combining efforts with the elder services nonprofit Northampton Neighbors for their “Yes We Can Can” food drive. To take part, bring unopened, undamaged cans of food to the Academy of Music between 2 and 3 p.m. on Sunday, right before the show. People who aren’t attending the show may also drop off cans at that time, or they can bring them to the Northampton Neighbors office on King Street between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday. The collection will go to the Northampton Survival Center before Thanksgiving.
Even with recent political uncertainty, Cilman said, “We don’t want people to feel defeated. Obviously, there are things that make people feel better, like [recent election results], but it’s a long road. We’re up against something that I’ve never felt before.”
“Everyone can’t sing with the chorus, but everyone can sing,” said Ireland, “and it’d be great if the audience went away singing and feeling empowered.”
Tickets to “10-Alarm Fire: We Won’t Shut Up!!” are available at aomtheatre.com, by phone at 413-584-9032 ext. 105, or at the Academy of Music box office.
