Keystone Community Singers perform for peace
How a MN choir of older adults found their voices and use them as a shout for hope.
By Emily Christiansen
Robert Graham, a 39-year-old from South Minneapolis spends two hours every week with women twice his age.
As the musical director of the Keystone Community Singers, a 55+ vocal ensemble group in St.Paul, Graham ensures that each rehearsal ends on a high note. He’s the last one to leave the practice space and stays an extra 10 to 15 minutes answering questions and concerns from the singers who surround him as soon as rehearsal ends. He even spent his 39th birthday with the women. They celebrated by rehearsing songs and eating cake together. He claimed it was the best birthday he’d ever had.
“He either has to be an awesome liar, or he’s just one awesome guy,” 69-year-old tenor Rhonda Simonson said.
During their afternoon dress rehearsal at the Merriam Park Recreation Center May 1., one day before their spring concert, soprano Stephanie Stockton raised her hand to share a few ideas. As soon as she and Graham locked eyes, she pulled out a notebook sheet full of blocking and choreography suggestions and pranced to the front of the room. The singers were hesitant, pleading “no” to her attempt at teaching the group a last-minute sign language routine for a song about love, but Graham backed her proposal to choreograph their cheerful gospel-style arrangement of “I Sing Because I’m Happy” and encouraged the other singers to give it a try.
They swayed their bodies back-and-forth, grooving to the rhythm. Those who were reluctant at first couldn’t help but smile and follow along. Pianist Martha Matthewson hammered the keys and nodded her head, tapping her foot against the lower pedal. Stockton grinned and danced, bouncing like a high school cheer captain as she guided the singers through each step.
Ten minutes and three run-throughs later, Graham transitioned into reviewing their last piece. Stockton walked back to her seat, out of breath and beaming.
“We all deserve a nap after this,” Graham said.
The singers laughed. He motioned to the pianist to begin playing their final song.
Before the official launch of the Keystone Community Singers in the spring of 2024, Graham worked for Minneapolis-based arts organization VocalEssence as an administrative staff member beginning in 2012. Three years later he became the conductor and manager of VocalEssence’s “Vintage Voices,” a choral program that partners with residential communities and senior centers throughout Minnesota to create choirs for adults aged 55+.
In 2023, he discovered that Keystone Community Services in St. Paul did not have a musical opportunity for older adults to gather and sing. This inspired him to plan a series of monthly sing-a-longs over the course of eight months to provide a relaxed setting for older adults in the community who hadn’t sung in a choir since childhood or had never sung in a choir before to be reminded of the joy of singing in a group.
The sing-a-longs worked. Twenty women agreed to join Graham for an 8-week-long rehearsal process and the Keystone Community choir was born. In preparation for their first concert, Graham kept it simple. He selected pieces that were mostly in unison with the occasional two-part harmony section. Simonson was one of the first women to join.
“I am not a good singer. That’s not me,” Simonson said. “But if you sing with other people who are phenomenal singers, you can kind of pretend you yourself are a good singer. It just brings you joy.”
The choir has grown to 38 members with four vocal sections, and their third official concert on May 1 featured mainly three-part vocal arrangements. They even acquired a male vocalist, bass Randé Tomas.
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“It’s really cool from a kind of musical and artistic standpoint that the group is continuing to grow and their musical skills are growing,” Graham said. “We’re able to do slightly more challenging music, which I think is a fun experience for the singers to be able to do, you know, they want the music to be fun and engaging and meaningful, and just challenging enough.”
“The most fulfilling part of this program is witnessing older people experiencing joy and community and friendship on a regular basis.” — Robert Graham, director of the Keystone Community Singers
Graham has seen Vintage Voices as a positive force for older adults living in a season of grief and loss. He described these losses as the lives of relatives, spouses and friends, the loss of long-time homes when having to transition to assisted living communities and sometimes the loss of car keys when their children or grandchildren decide they can no longer drive safely.
“All of those losses can compound and make some people feel very lonely and depressed,” Graham said. “The most fulfilling part of this program is witnessing older people experiencing joy and community and friendship on a regular basis.”
Bass Janie Morisette, 75, says reciting poems is her favorite part of performing. Along with choral arrangements, singers recite original and traditional poetry. When Morisette was first asked to read out loud at a rehearsal, Graham was enamored with her voice. He said he’d listen to her read the phone book.
“I felt very honored,” Morisette said. “He appreciated some of the skills that as older people we have, but people don’t necessarily notice.”
After joining the Keystone Community Singers, Simonson took piano lessons through VocalEssence, something her own children completed but she never had.
“I sit and play these little songs and sing my little heart out, and I’m getting better at the chords and all kinds of things, and that’s fun,” Simonson said.
Their performance May 1 titled “Abundant Hope” featured uplifting songs like “Blowing in the Wind” by Bob Dylan, “More Love” by Mark Miller and “Unity” by Glorraine B. Moone and Rev. Freddie Washington.
“Rhythm is a universal language. It isn’t in English. It isn’t in Chinese. That thumping beat is in all of us. If you put people together in a group, and you add a beat, it can bring a great deal of happiness.” — Rhonda Simonson, tenor
When tenor Shelley Diment, 67, first opened the sheet music in December of 2024, she felt disappointed by the lyrics. It was a month after President Donald Trump took office and she had prepared to sing songs of resistance and protest. She described the months following the election as a painful time for her and the country.
“I was in a really dark place, and I didn’t feel like singing about peace or hope or love,” Diment said.
But over time, she found that singing these songs became a way to overcome the anger and frustration she felt after the election.
“This music specifically I think has been very healing for me, because it’s who I really am,” Diment said. “It’s who we are as humans, is to remember to care for each other and love each other and seek peace and understanding. It’s kind of forced out some of the darker stuff.”
Simonson shared how music can unify people throughout the world at a time when the current U.S. administration is moving towards increased isolation from other countries, cultures and people-groups.
“Rhythm is a universal language,” Simonson said. “It isn’t in English. It isn’t in Chinese. That thumping beat is in all of us. If you put people together in a group, and you add a beat, it can bring a great deal of happiness.”
The Keystone Community Singers shuffled into Mount Zion Temple in St. Paul that first Thursday in May in bright pastel sweaters, collared shirts and long-sleeve tees. Graham wanted the choir to bloom like a “spring garden.”
Over 100 family members, friends and neighbors in the St. Paul community gathered to watch. Toward the middle of the set list, Graham invited audience members to sing along to “Standing Stone” by Melanie DeMore. Graham turned to the audience and demonstrated the melody and harmony lines to the chorus: “I will be your standing stone, I will stand by you.”
As the chorus began, each choir singer placed a hand on the shoulder of the person to their right, and the audience members listened and waited for Graham’s cue. Together, their voices filled the room. They echoed off the tall ceilings, the white walls and the colorful stained glass window, blending to become one voice.
(Additional reporting by Ava McCelelland and Kailey Tan.)
