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Tag: Earle Peach

Singing adds to health

Singing adds to health

Choir director and singer Earle Peach, seated at centre, with members of Highs and Lows Choir. (photo by Kathleen Yang)

For more than 20 years, Highs and Lows Choir has brought music back into the lives of its members. Established as a four-part choral group in the mid-1990s, its mission is the mutual support of singers, in a way that nurtures mental health and wellness. Auditions are not required for new members; musical activities and instruction are built into their weekly rehearsals. The main thing, according to choir director and singer Earle Peach, is “the desire to participate and the willingness to learn.”

Accompanied by pianist Elaine Joe, the choir of about 20 voices practises a wide repertoire of songs, which it performs at numerous venues around Vancouver. In December, the songs were festive and drew on a range of traditions – songs from Christmas in Victorian England, and a Chanukah song from Spain called “Ocho Kandelikas.” Between the seasonal items, the choir performed the satirical “Parking Lots and Strip Malls,” “Blue Moon” and, a favourite with swing bands, “Jump, Jive and Wail.”

“We’ll sing music from any place or time period, as long as it has beautiful harmony and isn’t too difficult,” said Peach of the set list.

The atmosphere at rehearsals is buoyant, even amid the hard work of managing tricky intervals and rhythms, as in, for example “A La Ru,” a Spanish lullaby. The choir sings in a range of languages, performing works in English, Latin, French, Swahili, Ladino and Haitian Creole. The music is “challenging but manageable,” according to Jewish community member Rachel Mayer, an alto singer who is also a member of the choir’s board.

In the break, members talk about upcoming events in the community. In December, the calendar was full of choral visits around town, including two events at Douglas Park Community Centre and a lunch at Carnegie Community Centre. At the end of January, the choir will be singing for the Suzuki Elders and, in February, they will join other choirs at the Home Ground Festival in Oppenheimer Park in the Downtown Eastside.

Bass singer Kevin Elwell has managed or co-managed Highs and Lows Choir since 2003, and has been a peer support worker and English-as-a-second-language instructor with Vancouver Coastal Health since 2006. He has seen firsthand the tremendous difference the choir has made in the lives of its members: a difference recognized by the Mayor’s Arts Award, which was given to Peach in the fall of 2017, for community-engaged art. A conductor for three other choirs in the area, Peach is also a performer, teacher, producer and recording artist.

Alaric Posey (bass) described the choir as “the highlight of my week.” Having sung in children’s choirs, he had been away from music for many years before joining Highs and Lows in 2003. This opened the door to a life full of music, as he is now the choir’s assistant conductor and co-manager. He also teaches music and performs with a number of other groups around Vancouver.

The singers explain that, while singing is good for you, the social element is equally important. “There’s more of an effect the more people you sing with. You’re a community with a common purpose,” said Posey.

Academic research confirms the views of the singers. A 2016 article on the neuroscience of singing reports that social singing evolved to serve the needs of early humans. By singing and dancing together, groups shared important information, forged strong social bonds and fended off enemies. While we may not need to scare away predators, our modern brains still benefit from the endorphins released into our bodies as we sing. These endorphins make us happier, healthier and more able to think creatively. Choir librarian Dale Sweet (tenor) sets a good example with his commitment to singing in seven different choirs around town.

While the choir was founded to nurture the mental health of its members, the lows are left at home during rehearsal. The choir is a place to be task-oriented while making music and laughing at the endless stream of bad puns emanating from the conductors. Still, the members always know that others have their backs. True to the choir’s name, soprano, chair of the choir board and Jewish community member Penny Goldsmith observed, “People look out for each other. If someone doesn’t show up, we call them.” Aptly named, the choir helps the spirits of its singers take flight.

The choir sings weekly every Tuesday from noon to 1:45 p.m. at the Unitarian Church at Oak and 49th in Vancouver. New members are always welcome. More information about the choir can be found at highsandlowschoir.ca.

Shula Klinger is an author and journalist living in North Vancouver. Find out more at shulaklinger.com.

Format ImagePosted on January 26, 2018January 24, 2018Author Shula KlingerCategories MusicTags choir, Earle Peach, health, Highs and Lows

Looking for nominees … the nominated and the winners

The Centre for Judaism of the Lower Fraser Valley is looking for nominations for its annual Lamplighter Award, which honours a young person who has performed an outstanding act of community service.

Candidates must be between the ages of 6 and 18 and submission of potential recipients must include two references describing the child’s community service. The chosen lamplighter will receive the award during Chanukah at an evening ceremony at Semiahmoo Shopping Centre.

“Chanukah celebrates the victory of light over darkness and goodness over evil,” said Simie Schtroks. “This is a most appropriate opportunity to motivate and inspire young people to make this world a brighter and better place. By filling the world with goodness and kindness, that light can dispel all sorts of darkness.”

To nominate a candidate for the award, contact Schtroks as soon as possible at [email protected].

* * *

This summer, David Granirer received a Meritorious Service Medal from the Governor General of Canada. The award recognizes a deed or activity that has been performed in a highly professional manner, or according to a very high standard: often innovative, this deed or activity sets an example for others to follow, improves the quality of life of a community and brings benefit or honour to Canada.

Granirer is a counselor, stand-up comic and mental health keynote speaker. Granirer, who himself has depression, has taught stand-up comedy to recovering addicts and cancer patients, and founded Stand Up for Mental Health, a program teaching comedy to people with mental health issues, in 2004. He has trained Stand Up for Mental Health groups in partnership with various mental health organizations in more than 50 cities in Canada, the United States and Australia. His work on mental health is featured by media worldwide and has garnered several awards.

Granirer also teaches Stand-Up Comedy Clinic at Langara College, and many of his students have gone on to become professional comics.

* * *

This year’s Mayor’s Arts Award for Community Engaged Arts went to Earle Peach. A singer, songwriter, composer, conductor, arranger, teacher and performer, Peach leads four choirs in the city and hosts a monthly community coffee house in Mount Pleasant. He teaches privately, and records musicians for demos and albums. He performs with Barbara Jackson as a duo called Songtree and also has a band called Illiteratty.

The emerging artist honour went to Ariel Martz-Oberlander, a theatre artist, writer and teacher. As a Jewish settler on Coast Salish territories with diasporic and refugee ancestry, her practice is rooted in a commitment to place-based accountability through decolonizing and solidarity work. She divides her time between theatre and community organizing, and specializing in creative protest tactics on land and water.

Martz-Oberlander is a facilitator with the True Voice Theatre Project, producing new shows by residents of the Downtown Eastside and vulnerably housed youth, in collaboration with the Gathering Place and Covenant House. Her most recent work, created with support from the LEAP program, won a research and development prize from the Arts Club. Martz-Oberlander is also the associate producer for Vines Festival, presenting accessible, free eco-art in Vancouver parks. Good art is accountable to the community, raises up voices rarely heard and is vital to repairing our world.

* * *

On Oct. 3, the Koffler Centre of the Arts announced the four winners of the 2017 Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature, all of whom were on hand at the award luncheon at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Toronto.

Winners in two of the categories are based in Vancouver. Miriam Libicki won the non-fiction award for Toward a Hot Jew (Fantagraphics Books Inc.), which the jury described as, “An admirably complicated response to being a woman and a Jew in our time, a thrilling combination of memoir, journalism and art.” And Irene N. Watts and Kathryn E. Shoemaker took the prize in the children’s/young adult category for Seeking Refuge (Tradewind Books), which the jury described as, “A superb graphic novel dramatizing the Kindertransport, a powerful story enhanced by firsthand experience and beautiful black-and-white illustrations.”

The other winners were Peter Behrens’ Carry Me (House of Anansi Press) for fiction and Matti Friedman’s Pumpkinflowers (McClelland & Stewart) for history.

The history shortlist included Max Eisen’s By Chance Alone (Harper Collins Publishers) and Ester Reiter’s A Future Without Hate or Need: The Promise of the Jewish Left in Canada (Between the Lines). Runners-up in the fiction category were Eric Beck Rubin’s School of Velocity (Doubleday Canada) and Danila Botha’s For All the Men (and Some of the Women) I’ve Known (Tightrope Books). In non-fiction, Sarah Barmak’s Closer: Notes from the Orgasmic Frontier of Female Sexuality (Coach House Books), Judy Batalion’s White Walls (Berkley/Penguin Random House) and David Leach’s Chasing Utopia (ECW Press) were runners-up, while Deborah Kerbel’s Feathered (Kids Can Press) and Tilar Mazzeo and Mary Farrell’s Irena’s Children (Margaret K. McElderry Books) were on the children’s/young adult short list.

* * *

In September 2017, local community member Dr. Arthur Wolak was elected for a three-year term to the board of governors of Gratz College, a private liberal arts college in suburban Philadelphia. Founded in 1895, Gratz is the oldest independent and pluralistic college for Jewish studies in North America. Accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, Gratz is also recognized by Israel’s Ministry of Education and Culture. Through its undergraduate and graduate programs, Gratz educates students to become effective educators, administrators and community leaders.

Posted on October 27, 2017October 25, 2017Author Community members/organizationsCategories LocalTags activism, Ariel Martz-Oberlander, Arthur Wolak, books, Centre for Judaism, David Granirer, Earle Peach, Gratz College, Irene Watts, Kathryn Shoemaker, Lamplighter Award, Mayor’s Arts Award, mental health, Meritorious Service, Miriam Libicki, Simie Schtroks, tikkun olam, Vine Awards
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