by Jonathan Miller, Artistic Director and Co-Founder, Sounds Good Choir | Oct 13, 2018 | Singer Profile
It is gratifying when singers come up to me spontaneously after rehearsal with bright eyes and say, “I love this music!” This happened many times in past Encore sessions, and it’s happening again now. This is true whether I picked the music on my own (as for the first...
by Jonathan Miller, Artistic Director and Co-Founder, Sounds Good Choir | Oct 5, 2018 | Singer Profile
It’s the beginning of October. We’ve now held five rehearsals of the Good Memories choir. As many of you know, Good Memories is our new choral program for people with early-stage memory loss and their care partners, singing together in a choir along with a remarkable...
by Jonathan Miller, Artistic Director and Co-Founder, Sounds Good Choir | May 17, 2018 | Uncategorized
We’re happy to announce our May 2018 edition. Click here to read: May 2018 Newsletter Special thanks to Ruth Trailer, our newsletter editor. Happy reading.
by Jonathan Miller, Artistic Director and Co-Founder, Sounds Good Choir | Apr 12, 2018 | Singer Profile
“What we hear from people who have been diagnosed with dementia is this: ‘other people stop looking us in the eye; they stop calling us by name; they cease physical contact; and they stop expecting anything from us’.” These were the words of Mary Lenard, co-director...
by Jonathan Miller, Artistic Director and Co-Founder, Sounds Good Choir | Apr 12, 2018 | Uncategorized
How time flies! Today is the 2nd anniversary of the very first rehearsal for Encore Illinois. It was at the Merion in Evanston (pictured here). Many of you were there that day. Hyde Park’s first rehearsal took place the very next day. We held two 6-week pilots...
by Jonathan Miller, Artistic Director and Co-Founder, Sounds Good Choir | Mar 24, 2018 | Singer Profile
This blogpost is from Sandy Siegel Miller, our amazing uber-volunteer and #1 cheerleader, with photos by Hyde Park Chorus Master Joy Rosner: I arrived at Thursday’s Snowbird Day with the first verse of Psalm 100 on my mind: “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all...
by Jonathan Miller, Artistic Director and Co-Founder, Sounds Good Choir | Dec 1, 2017 | Singer Profile
by Sandy Siegel Miller, Encore Illinois Board President This isn’t an unusual scene at Encore rehearsals -what’s unusual is that I took a photo. The Hinsdale rehearsal ended about 15 minutes before this photo was taken and around half of the choir had already headed...
by Jonathan Miller, Artistic Director and Co-Founder, Sounds Good Choir | Sep 7, 2017 | Uncategorized
Encore has to buy things, especially printed things. If you’re like me, you like knowing where you can get a great price on something. We have a great vendor in Virginia for much of our sheet music, East Coast Music; they are very flexible and responsive. For routine...
by Jonathan Miller, Artistic Director and Co-Founder, Sounds Good Choir | Jul 13, 2017 | Singer Profile
We are pleased and excited that three of our singers were featured in this new article on the Chorus America website about the experiences that older adults have singing in a choir. The article features Helen Gagel from the Evanston Encore Chorale, Jim Lavin from the...
by Jonathan Miller, Artistic Director and Co-Founder, Sounds Good Choir | Jul 13, 2017 | Musings
Sheila Haennicke is a social worker in the Alzheimer’s field and a college classmate of our artistic director, Jonathan Miller. Sheila’s mother has Alzheimer’s disease, and her dad, Bob Black, sings with Encore in Arlington Heights. Sheila wrote this...
