The sounds of healing

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This article was published 24/11/2022 (1350 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Every Monday evening at 7 p.m., long after the students at Balmoral Hall have gone home, the school’s music room resounds with nurses’ voices.

The Winnipeg Nurses Choir, led by retired music teacher Bill Quinn and accompanied by pianist Megan Dufrat, meet there every week, from September to early June to hone their craft.

Comprising both retired and practising nurses, the choir is currently rehearsing for its first public concert of the season, taking place on Sunday.

The choir will perform 15 songs at the concert, ranging from favourites such as Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah and The Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel to more festive classics such as holiday staple Let It Snow.

The group was established four years ago by Quinn after a conversation with his sister Susan Koop, who suggested it as a retirement project.

“We live to sing, believe in what we are doing and have fun doing it,” say the musical director and conductor.

The only requirement to join the interfaith secular choir is that members are nurses or retired nurses. At the moment they have 36 singers.

“When we first got going we only had 17 singers. Working with nurses, I have to be flexible. They sometimes can’t come for a couple of rehearsals, but we have enough members now that we usually get something accomplished,” he says.

The group has been making use of Balmoral Hall since this fall. The school donated the music room for practice, forgoing the usual $75-an-hour fee.

“It’s a donation worth $150 a rehearsal,” Quinn says. “And from September to June that’s worth $4,200 — a really generous thing for the school to do.”

Kelly Thompson, 62, who retired in 2019 after a 37-year nursing career, joined the choir in September 2020.

The Charleswood resident had heard about the group from a friend but was unable to meet as the rehearsal times clashed with her working hours.

“I just thought I would hold off on this but it’s something I always remembered in the back of my mind. When I retired I went out for my first rehearsal, and I felt welcomed. I just really enjoyed it,” she says.

Thompson finds the experience “uplifting and energizing.”

“You can be having a not-great day and then it just gets better. It’s just very positive, that’s been certainly been one of the things that I have found. I leave practices and performances feeling better than I did when I got there,” she continues.

The choir performs a variety of pieces from Broadway musicals to gospel and folk numbers.

Quinn, an experienced musician who has his own folk-rock band, decides on the song selection, although he does entertain suggestions.

The choir has had three concerts so far this month and December is looking busy, with eight performances already booked in the calendar.

Public concerts are rare and usually take place during the festive season or at the start of summer, when the choir performs in early June before they take a break.

“We’ve been singing for primarily residents of health-care facilities and seniors since 2018,” Quinn says.

For Quinn it’s also a family affair: his sister Susan and his wife Heather, a former VON nurse, both sing in the choir.

Adult emergency nurse Hyon Jin Kee has always enjoyed being involved in group music settings. She joined the choir in her third year of nursing at the University of Manitoba, after Quinn had reached out to the nursing school.

“I was lucky enough to join Bill and the choir,” she says. “Singing helps a lot with mental health. It’s like when you go to the gym for cardio: you sweat a bit then you feel better. For me it’s singing, it opens up your lungs and you enjoy the music, and you feel better. I get that same effect.”

The weekly dose of socializing also helps, she says. Although the choir ceased to meet during the height of the pandemic, modified activities resumed when restrictions relaxed.

“We were able to meet more often once restrictions lifted. Even with masks and distance, we were still able to continue; that was great for me, and I am sure for the other nurses too.”

The hospital and care homes the choir performs at give Kee a sense of purpose, she says.

“It’s a way to redirect your stress and energy into something more creative and fun.”

av.kitching@freepress.mb.ca