Chorus leader helps seniors rock
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman. To listen to an audio clip of my interview with Bob Cilman, click here.
Director of chorus says hard work at any age can be rewarding
The concept sounds like a lark or even some kind of joke: About two dozen senior citizens blending their voices to cover songs from The Clash, Coldplay, Prince and an assortment of other rockers, punk bands and disco divas.
But even if their shows sometimes prompt laughs, Bob Cilman doesn’t see the song choices or performances of the Young@Heart Chorus as stunts.
“We’re more interested in uniting the song with the right person in the group, and I think the lyrics are very important. I think we listen to the song in a different way from these guys; I think you hear the lyrics more. So, I think (about) those two things more than trying to shock anybody. I don’t think that’s really what we’re trying to do. Then, it becomes a little gimmicky; I don’t think we’re a gimmick,” said Cilman, who has directed the Young@Heart Chorus for 25 years, in a recent phone interview.
Cilman, who will turn 55 in June, and his group of septuagenarian, octogenarian and nonagenarian singers are the stars of the documentary film “Young@Heart,” opening in Oklahoma City today.
Directed by British documentarian Stephen Walker, the film focuses on a seven-week period while the choir, which regularly tours the U.S. and Europe, prepares for a big show in its hometown of Northampton, Mass.
Cilman readies a challenging slate of new songs, including James Brown’s signature “I Got You (I Feel Good),” Allen Toussaint’s R&B anthem “Yes We Can Can” and Sonic Youth’s dissonant “Schizophrenia.” He also recruits two former choir members, Fred Knittle and Bob Salvini, who are unable to tour due to health issues, for a one-off duet of Coldplay’s “Fix You.”
The chorus also has performed songs from The Flaming Lips, Talking Heads, Radiohead, Jimi Hendrix and Brave Combo.
As the film shows, the choir members, whose tastes run more to show tunes and classical music, don’t always appreciate Cilman’s choices, at least not at first. Several even stick their fingers in their ears when they first hear the discordant “Schizophrenia.”
“No, they didn’t like it,” Cilman said. “But they didn’t mind ‘I Feel Good.’ And what happens in the film: They do a really wonderful job on ‘Schizophrenia,’ and ‘I Feel Good’ is like a nail-biter to see if they’ll even get through it. So, the fact that they like it in the beginning has nothing to do with whether it’s going to be interesting.”
Cilman picked “Schizophrenia” because Sonic Youth also hails from Northampton. As with Young@Heart favorites such as Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young” and the Ramones’ “I Want to Be Sedated,” Cilman also thought the senior singers could offer a unique interpretation of the alt-rock anthem.
Through the depicted rehearsals, the choir’s colorful characters come to the fore, including Eileen Hall, a spirited and flirty 92-year-old; Joe Benoit, a cancer survivor and effervescent performer; and Stan Goldman and Dora Morrow, the unlikely and struggling duet partners on “I Feel Good.”
The choir director is shown in the film doggedly pushing the performers, with the singers dubbing him “demanding” and “a taskmaster.” Cilman, who also is the executive director of the Northampton Arts Council, said he doesn’t mind.
“We have a task at hand, and we’re trying to get them to master it, so I don’t see that as being a big worry. And you have to be demanding if you’re going to make something good,” he said. “I think that people look at the show and say, ‘They’re old people; you should be treating them so differently.’ It’s crazy. These are really solid people who have lived a long time, and they’re interested in making art that’s fun to watch.”
His attitude: Just because his singers are in the winter of their lives doesn’t mean they need to be treated like fragile snowflakes.
“Only when they’re fragile. I mean, there’s times when people are fragile; you’ve got to be really careful. But I don’t believe in coddling them. … I think you have to know when to be demanding and when you have to be really caring,” he said.
The film’s focus shifts to the fragility of life when two choir members die before the hometown show. Cilman, who was reluctant to take on the distraction of moviemaking in the first place, said the deaths created a quandary for the choir and film crew.
“We just sort of shut down and didn’t want to have all kinds of cameras in our face, and I think they were stuck with like, ‘Whoa, we’ve got this story we have to tell,’ ” he said.
Ultimately, he said the filmmakers crafted a truthful film depicting the elderly artists moving audiences with their performances, starring in entertaining music videos and living fulfilled lives.
“I know what they would say is that they hope people (who see the movie) fear getting older less,” he said, speaking for the choir members. “What I prefer is that people see the value of working hard on something no matter how old you are, the reward you get out of it.”
-BAM
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