A costumed chorist: The unofficial organizer of the JCC choir
Earl Parker, 94, still has a song in his heart

If you attend a performance by the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh’s Choir, you may see a peculiar sight: Earl Parker wearing a tuxedo shirt and a top hat or a fake mustache.
Parker, one of a few choir members who typically have solos during the group’s performances, dresses in thematic costumes for his songs.
“I’m the only one that does that,” he said.
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He’s joined by an eclectic group of singers, almost 40 members, who meet weekly to rehearse at the Squirrel Hill JCC. Parker is Jewish but the choir has many non-Jewish members and varies widely in age. Parker, 94, is the eldest of the group and joined in 2008.
It’s hard to pin down a one-size-fits-all description of the group.
“I think they’re all different,” he said. “But the bottom line is they all like to sing. They enjoy singing and that’s why they come.”
Cindy Harris directs the group and Ceinwen King-Smith plays the piano for their performances. As for Parker, he said he does “everything else that there is to do.”
He creates the programs, makes arrangements for the location of the performances, makes the schedules and changes the program if Harris has notes.
For every program, he picks a theme. The group’s next performance is “Songs About Music & Songs,” and he’s already put the next 15 programs together.
Before joining the chorus, Parker had no musical experience or background. To do his choral work, he reads and searches for songs online. His internet research doesn’t always yield classic songs, so he reads books from the decades they often perform music from: the ‘20s to the ‘50s, although he’s not opposed to modern songs.
“Most of our audiences are seniors, but as we grow older, our audiences seem to be younger, and sometimes I’ll put in more up-to-date programs,” he said. “I try to aim at our audience, whatever I feel that the audience is going to appreciate and enjoy.”
He’s constantly looking for new ideas. He’s been retired for two decades, and in addition to keeping busy playing cards and baking, he spends at least two days a week working for the chorus.
Despite the amount of time the Pittsburgh native invests in the choir, he’s humble about his role, and if he has an official title, he isn’t aware of it. He’s quick to direct praise to others, speaking highly of Harris’ work as a choir director with many groups and King-Smith’s talent as a blind pianist.
The group performs eight to 10 times a year at assisted living facilities, nursing homes and senior apartment buildings like The New Riverview, where Parker and a few other members live.
“This has happened more than once where a caregiver will come up to us and say, ‘You know, the woman that I’ve been taking care of never speaks, but she was singing along with you people, and I’ve never seen her like that before,’” Parker said. “It really makes you feel good. You feel like you have accomplished something.”
The roots of the chorus run deep: the Anathan House, a recreational center for senior citizens started in 1949, had a chorus. That chorus eventually moved to the JCC. Parker keeps newspaper clippings about the history of the group, including an old photo that ran in the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle.
His own history with the group now spans almost two decades. After Parker’s wife, Elaine, died in 2007, he was bowling with a man who was married to the then-director of the chorus. After being encouraged to join, Parker started singing with the group. He’s been the unofficial organizer for almost a decade.
He said he was likely nervous for his first few performances because he had never sung in front of an audience — a formal audience, that is.
“My sister-in-law was in one of the homes we were performing at, and the director went over and said, ‘I bet you never heard your brother-in-law sing.’ And she said, ‘Oh, he sang in the car all the time.’”
The chorus welcomes any and all to join rehearsals, which happen every Friday at noon in Levinson Hall at the JCC in Squirrel Hill.
“Music always seems to bring the best out of people,” he said. “We urge them to sing along, and we have some very good audiences that respond very well to us.” PJC
Abigail Hakas is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.
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