The Oak Park Arms Chorus will perform at noon, Tuesday, March 9, at Shriner’s Hospitals for Children, 2211 North Oak Park Ave., Chicago. The OPA Chorus is comprised of residents of the Oak Park Arms Retirement Community as well as musically inclined people of the general community.
Directed by Desi Vasquez, who is also the Oak Park Arms’ social director, the chorus performs songs from the age of jazz, Americana, rounds, folk tunes and good old-fashioned standards. The members include:
Charles Costello
Mary Deady
Mary Garrett
Emil Kost
Susan Lewy
Howard McLain
Marion Menges
Greg Morkovin
George Rico
Pat Sokol
Henry Turkowski
Claire Wilcoxen
Faunti Wilcoxen
Barbara Wilson
“We are having a ball,” Vasquez said. “This is our second visit to Shriner’s, and there is a real bridge between the members of the chorus and the kids. I can describe it as both seniors and children, both of whom have faced loss, are living totally in the present. It’s a genuine connection.”
For 25 years, Vasquez was a professional singer in New York. She is a member of the Screen Actors Guild and has worked in voice-overs and performed in opera. Because of her interest in music, Vasquez wanted to start a chorus and finally, less than a year ago, she held the first rehearsal. Four residents showed up.
Today there are 14 singers from age 65 to 90, but Vasquez says the sky’s the limit. Chorus membership is open to all, not just to residents of Oak Park Arms.
“We invite anyone to join us,” she said. “We’re also looking for groupies. Seriously, the chorus members enjoy additional benefits. Singing is wonderful exercise. It oxygenates the lungs and uses memory, team building and social skills.”
So far, the Oak Park Arms Chorus has provided entertainment at the retirement community’s open houses, variety shows, and social functions, and a few “on the road” gigs.
“All my life I’ve loved to sing,” said Emil Kost, a chorus member who lives at the Oak Park Arms. “I’m very happy Desi started this chorus because now I’m still singing.”
Kost, 83, relates a story that, as a fifth grader at J. A. Sexton Elementary School on the North Side of Chicago, the Shriner’s would take kids to the circus and give them four nickels apiece.
“It looks like 75 years later, by going to Shriner’s Hospital, I’m getting to pay them back,” Kost said.
The Oak Park Arms is a rental retirement community which provides independent and assisted living apartments and a full schedule of activities and services. Furnished apartments are also available for a short-term stay - a weekend, a week, a month or longer.
For more information about the chorus, call Desi Vasquez at 708-386-4040.