Search - Young@Heart Chorus :: Mostly Live

The floors will thud. The walls will shake. The innards of that old piano will take a licking they'll never forget. The Young@Heart Chorus is warming up. Belinda McKeon - Irish Times, September 28, 2007 When the audience empties out of the theater at the end of Young@Heart's Dartmouth concert, they are a wide-eyed, flabbergasted mob. Few knew what to expect, and those who thought they knew are shocked. Jake Coyle, AP, 2007 Mostly Live plays out as a poignant celebration of life from the vantage of those who continue to live it to the fullest...the Young@Heart chorus gives unique expression to the songs we thought a later generation owned. Ariana Venturi, Bomb Magazine, 2007 It sounds like a gimmick, and a cheap one at that, but the "Fix You" clip was extraordinary, not least because of the grave, graceful lead vocal performance by chorus member Fred Knittle, who has a heart condition and sang with a breathing tube attached to his nose. Young @ Heart's "Fix You" is touching and dignified. Most importantly, it's a fine piece of music. Jody Rosen, Slate Magazine, 2007 Les 22 choristes américains de Young@Heart - 79 ans en moyenne - sont en tournée en France, reprenant des tubes avec une énergie puisant dans la noirceur et la dérision. René Solis, Liberation, 2007 An amazing choir from Northampton, Massachusetts. I recently brought them to New York for my "How New Yorkers Ride Bikes" event at Town Hall. (they sang Queen's "Bicycle Race" of course). The next day at the Paris Bar they did their own show of songs by the Flaming Lips, Sonic Youth and others - all of which seemed to take on completely new meaning. David Byrne, Music: Best of 2007, Artforum Young @ Heart began in 1982 and one year later staged our first production, Stompin at the Salvo , with Roy Faudree from No Theater. In 1984 we began collaborating with other arts organizations. That year we created Boola Boola Bimini Bop with a group of Latino break-dancers from a local housing project. Other projects included "Oh No a Condo" in 1988, with Cambodian folk artists and punk rockers and in 1991 Louis Lou I A Revolting Musical reunited us with Roy and No Theater for a re-telling of the French Revolution using the songs of Sinatra. In 1994 we created "Flaming Saddles", a big campy production with the Pioneer Valley Gay Men s Chorus. There were many others along the way. In 1997 Young @ Heart in Road to Heaven staged by No Theater premiered at the R Festival in Rotterdam. We went on to 12 more tours of Europe, Australia and Canada from 1997-2004. Young @ Heart in Road to Nowhere staged by No Theater premiered fall 2004 in the Oude Luxor Theater in Rotterdam presented by the Rotterdamse Schouwburg. After a 12-show run in London in 2005, Road to Nowhere toured to Zurich, Berlin, the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival 2007, LE QUAI THEATRE IN Angers and THE NATIONAL THEATRE OF Strasbourg, France. Alive and Well , the Y @ H in concert, features songs from past productions and also allows us to experiment with new music in front of a live audience. We ve performed Alive and Well on college campuses and clubs in the US and at the Glor-Irish Music Centre in Ennis, Ireland. Young @ Heart recently released a CD, Mostly Live . The documentary, Young @ Heart , aired on television across Europe, won two Rose d Or awards, the LA Film Festival Audience Award, screened at Sundance 2008 and it is APRIL 2008 Fox Searchlight release in North American theaters. The current performers in Young @ Heart range in age from 71 to 88. There are some with prior professional theater or music experience, others who have performed extensively on the amateur level, and some who never stepped onto a stage before turning eighty.