Holy Apostles chorus offers a home for every voice

By Tabitha Earp

Doris Leone, at a youthful 92, could barely keep her feet still on Monday night as she lifted her voice with those booming around her. Sitting among a sea of blue chairs cascading down the altar’s steps in five horizontal rows, Leone peered through her wire-rimmed glasses at the sheet music placed on the stand before her, dressed in a black skirt and lavender top, her bleached-white hair pinned back on each side. As the conductor raised and lowered his hands, she followed along, keeping up with the changing tempo and carefully moving her body as she flipped to the next the page in her song binder. A few minutes later, as the song drew to a close, Leone caught her breath, turned to the woman beside her and smiled knowingly.

Leone, a veteran of such occasions, was testing her vocal prowess recently as a member of the Church of the Holy Apostles Community Chorus, a veritable institution within an institution that has been welcoming all who wish to sing—regardless of age, gender or ability—for 13 years. The gathering on Monday was part of an ongoing ritual for this diverse group of performers, who are in the midst of rehearsals for their 14th annual spring concert, which takes place on Saturday afternoon.

As the most senior member of the Holy Apostles group, the long-time resident of Chelsea is no stranger to taking cues from conductors. About 10 years ago, Leone was a member of another chorus group at Penn South—where she lives—when she saw a flier advertising a new community chorus being hosted at the church next door. Leone soon decided to check out the group with some friends and has been there ever since.

The same goes for Jack Eppler, who as music director and conductor, founded the community chorus along with piano accompanist David Williams in November 1994.

Eppler, a 1970 music education graduate of Bethany Nazarene College, in Oklahoma, arrived in New York that decade looking to get involved with concert choruses. A decade later, he started seeing himself more as a teacher, after traveling around the country with his wife, watching her give vocal workshops. In the process, he discovered how insecure Americans were about their vocal abilities. He then decided to develop his own vocal workshop to encourage self-proclaimed non-singers to embrace the joy of song, and his experience laid the foundations for the Holy Apostles Community Chorus.

“It just sounded so painful for anyone to say they couldn’t sing,” he said while talking to Chelsea Now before Monday night’s rehearsal. “I thought to myself, I don’t think that can ever be true. So, I had the idea that I would have a place where people could come and sing.”

When Eppler pitched the idea of a community chorus to the Church of the Holy Apostles in early fall of 1994, the Church confessed that it had also been considering it for some time. Shortly thereafter, the Church distributed fliers advertising the new group, and slowly the chorus began to take shape, mostly with members of nearby housing communities, including Penn South.

Initially, the chorus functioned as a place where people could stop by to indulge in some late-afternoon singing, with no pressure of public performance—though during the first holiday season the group shared together, members took their music to the streets with a caroling party. According to Eppler, that road test was pivotal, convincing members to take it a step further and venture into the realm of public concerts, the first of which took place in spring 1995.

The concerts embrace themes that Eppler comes up with, usually after being inspired by a particular piece of music. Once the theme is established, the music maestro pulls other related songs into the fold. For Saturday afternoon’s concert, Eppler’s goal is to show the development of American musical theater from European opera. “It is very grandiose,” he said, reflecting on his theme choice with a smile and slight chuckle. “I don’t know if you can encompass that in 11 pieces of music, but that was the idea.” In general, Eppler’s music choices are as diverse as the group that performs them, ranging from classical works to folk to popular music.

The chorus itself, which began with only 15 members and now boasts 75, is a diverse lot representing all ages, genders and races, people who can be found singing every week underneath the stained-glass windows and golden-eagle statues of the Church where the first brave souls put away their singing insecurities for good back in 1994.

Among the rows of folding chairs on Monday night sat women who, like Leone, are undoubtedly collecting Social Security and managed to laugh between songs at least as much as the younger pups in the chorus. In the front row of the soprano section, a mother sat with her toddler son. The boy, clad in overalls and sporting messy brown hair, decided to lend his unique tone to the vocal warm-ups before quickly sliding down from his chair once the actual rehearsal began to explore the sanctuary. A few seats farther down in the tenor section, a male acting student leaned against his chair, watching Eppler intently as he shifted through the music sheets in his lap, refusing to let the toddler’s babbling distract him.

Just prior to the rehearsal, Eppler noted how much he cherishes the wide age range of the chorus members, adding that separating people by age is one of his biggest pet peeves. “When people from different generations can work together,” he said, “that’s very, very moving.”

That sense of inclusion and cooperation was palpable on Monday night, as members laughed and talked between songs. Late arrivals to rehearsal sat down to greetings from friends instead of reprimands, as a banner high up on the church’s balcony stared down on them with the words: “There shall be no outcasts.”

But that doesn’t mean the rehearsal was without its tense moments.

As the chorus sang one of the final songs of the evening, Eppler stood silent for a few seconds with his head tilted toward the floor. He had just quieted the chorus, sharply cutting off their singing with a quick slice through the air with his hands. The singers looked around their individual sections. They instinctively knew it was once again time to put their vocal cords to the grindstone. Eppler lifted his frustrated face back toward the group of singers sitting before him.

“It’s pretty,” he said moving his head around to each of the faces before him. “But, it’s meaningless without the words.”

After a few more moments of silence, Eppler went on to elaborate. The chorus had failed to enunciate the final word of the last line it had just belted out. Instead of singing “And don’t be afraid of the dark” from the Rodgers and Hammerstein song “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” the group had ended short, changing “dark” to “dar.” Eppler reminded the singers that since the concert is for the audience members’ enjoyment, “they might actually want to understand the words.” He sliced the air once more, asking the Chorus to repeat the line, this time remembering the “k.”

Eileen O’Shea, 61, kept her eyes focused on Eppler’s hands, her music sheet on her lap and her green and black walker stood propped in front of her. For O’Shea, who has been a part of the Chorus since fall 2005 and has performed in three concerts, Eppler’s sometimes stern direction is helpful.

She also appreciates his wide range of musical choices—and the chorus’ mission to accept every voice that wants to sing. “I wouldn’t be able to be a part of something like this otherwise,” she said. “It’s for everybody. Everybody is here.”

At the other end of the age spectrum was Ben Harburg, a 21-year-old acting student who sings tenor. Ben has been coming to chorus at Holy Apostles to improve his voice, while embracing his musical heritage. Harburg’s famous grandfather was Yip Harburg, a lyricist who worked on The Wizard of Oz, among other projects.

Amid the group of amateur singers on Monday night were also a few aspiring professionals. Andrew Lerner, who performed a solo during the rehearsal, found his way to the chorus last winter when he noticed fliers advertising the group around his housing development.

Lerner, who had come to New York City to make it as a professional vocalist, decided to join the chorus because he wanted to let his hair down and be involved in a musical community where “it’s fun and the people care for each other and respect each other.” He said he was tired of the usual requirements of professional choruses, including sight-reading and training.

“Here we want to do a good job,” he said excitedly. “But, there’s not all that pressure.”

As the rehearsal wound down on Monday, the differences that made the chorus unique disappeared as the members began pulling together to push through the remaining songs, mastering the articulation and appropriate tune for “dark” and forging ahead with the Rodgers and Hammerstein’s song. This time around, the group included the final letter of every word. As the singers reached the last line of the song, filling the sanctuary with the promise “You will never walk alone,” Eppler began to dance in celebration of the singers’ improvement.

“It’s so moving when you sing with such clarity!” he exclaimed as he made jovial leaps from one foot to the other. Chorus members laughed with Eppler and quickly exchanged looks of pride with one another before returning their attention back to what they like best, singing.