Years ago the Beatles sang “When I’m Sixty-Four,” but how about “When I’m Seventy-Five?” That’s the age when one is eligible to join Young@Heart NYC (Y@H), a wonderful choir of exuberant senior citizens whose repertoire is as diverse as their members.
The Y@H choir, led by director David Nagler, rehearses weekly at the Abrons Arts Center on the Lower East Side. They are a group of about 30 members, mostly between 75 and 89 years young, whose experience ranges from singing onstage to singing in the shower; Nagler admits that “there are a couple of people who’ve come who are a little younger, and we were too nice to turn them away.”
Nagler’s not only had experience wrangling choirs before, such as the Jon Langford Skull Orchard Welsh Male Choir and an accompanist role with the fourth and fifth grade chorus at Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn, he’s also got a resume that includes collaborations with over 200 musicians including Joan Baez, Aaron Neville, Rosanne Cash, Fred Armisen, Steve Earle, Stephin Merritt (The Magnetic Fields), Wesley Stace and Suzanne Vega.
On top of that, he’s a regular performer with the fabulous Loser’s Lounge, has a number of his own albums out and is part of the art rock supergroup “Tape Hiss” featuring members of The Modern Lovers and Sonic Youth.
Nagler is new to this group, and the group itself is new to New York. Y@H got its start 44 years ago in Northampton, MA, founded by a guy named Bob Cilman who has been described — by others, Cilman points out — as an “impresario.”
“But that’s too big; I don’t like that word,” he explains. “I create, I make shows. I used to be the head of the Northampton Arts Council. I produced a lot of events. I was an arts producer.”
Y@H is a full-time job now, though, with gigs taking the crew as far away as New Zealand and Japan and theatrical productions that have played in England, Berlin, Singapore and Norway, to name a few.
Although the western Massachusetts group is an unqualified success, Cilman says, “I’ve always wanted to start a group in New York or in a place that is bigger. In western Mass, you really have to struggle for a group to be diverse, and we’ve done it with the group up here, but we had to really work at it. In New York, it happens automatically.”
A conversation with an administrator from the Janey Fund, whom he knew from his work with choirs in Massachusetts prisons, led him to the Henry Street Settlement.
“It will be a year in September that we started in New York,” Cilman notes. “It’s worked out great. It happened right away. You know, we have a really diverse group, a mixture of everything.”
The enthusiasm of the group is obvious, and Nagler notes that one difference between working with Y@H versus a younger group is that “everyone really wants to be here.” The only downside to the whole endeavor, Cilman admits, is “how people die, on a regular basis. I’m often giving eulogies. But I realize that these people were having the most fun in their life at the end of their life, and that’s a cool thing.”
There’s no doubt about that. Surveying the singers, one hears remarks such as:
“The community, the joy, the singing, singing, singing and singing together! We are learning some very arcane rock songs, lyrics and music, but what a joy when we accomplish this!” — Joan Jeffri
“Young@Heart NYC brings me joy because I love to perform and be introduced to new music” — Francis Berman
“What a golden opportunity to sing with these dynamic people who also find joy in learning, living and loving through music! As I enter a new decade within the golden season of my life, I feel as if I have struck gold in becoming a member of this vibrant and vital group! ” — Olivette Taylor
Some of those “arcane” tunes include numbers by Richard Hell & the Voidoids, LCD Soundsystem, Tom Waits, Stevie Wonder, Leonard Cohen, Bronski Beat, Olivia Rodrigo, Gang of Four, Faye Wong, The Breeders, and Terry Allen.
“I was assigned a song which I had never heard of called ‘Return of the Mack,’” Taylor recounts. “In fact, it was written for a man — but David’s creative genius encourages us to stretch ourselves out of our comfort zones and make any song ours. A wonderful lesson at all ages, especially in our golden years of prime time!”
There are times, too, when a performer finds an unexpected connection to a previously unknown artist.
“I have a singer named Ruth Zheng who is an operatically trained singer,” Nagler says. “I thought it’d be really cool if she sang a Klaus Nomi song called “Total Eclipse”. She knew nothing about Nomi, but she did some research on him and found out that he was really into Maria Callas, and she was like, I’m really into Maria Callas!”
“There is a curiosity about the material that is very endearing,” Nagler notes. “They just really want to do their best.”
Wayne Brachman, despite his aversion to pop music, concedes that “we do a lot of songs that I think are awful to listen to but are actually very enjoyable to sing.”
One of the things that distinguishes this group from other choirs in their demographic is that they memorize all the lyrics, performing without the aid of phones or iPads.
While their live shows – and they have a few coming up, so watch the website and Instagram – are the destination, the weekly rehearsals are the proverbial journey.
“The rewarding thing is what you get in the moment of it,” Nagler muses. “The rehearsal experience is just joyful. People are really excited to see each other, they’re excited to sing, they’re just so excited to be there. You get really swept up in the joy and the excitement and the love that everyone has for what they’re doing.”
You can keep up with the Young@Heart chorus at youngatheart.org and on Instagram at @youngatheartchorus. They are open to new member inquiries and welcome donations.
Upcoming shows include a collaboration with Stephen Merritt and Noah Britton at Joe’s Pub on Oct. 23, and their own show at the same venue on Jan. 24, 2027.
