GROTON — One local chapter of singers provides a service for hospice patients with a truly unique power and gives them a gift in a way only music can.
“Our primary mission is to provide peace and comfort through song to people at the threshold of life, and to their attending family, friends, and caregivers. In the rehearsals where we prepare for this service, our singers experience the calming and healing power of music for themselves,” said Charlotte Russell, Music Director for Threshold Singers of Groton Hill Music Center.
She said the group’s singing can “offer brief respite to a caregiver, create space to process emotions” like grief and gratitude, “be a way for everyone in the room to experience something together when communication is difficult”, when there is no longer much that a person can do for a loved one, or be a “quietly joyful celebration of a life well-lived.” Institutionalized patients without family visitors find meaning in songs like “You Are Not Alone.”
Their repertoire is varied and mostly secular, with many spiritual but non-denominational songs, and some hymns available for religious patients of many traditions. All can be sung in parts without accompaniment. If a favorite secular song is requested, they do their best to secure the rights to the music and learn it in time.
The service is available within a 15-20 mile radius of Groton or Littleton, occasionally traveling further on a case-by-case basis. Singers go to hospitals, hospice facilities, assisted living, private homes, or any other location where patients, families, clergy, and care staff invite them. Patients don’t have to be enrolled with a hospice or palliative care organization to request the Threshold Choir.
The singing even reaches those who are asleep, unconscious, or even unresponsive, with breathing and heartrate changes and smiles.
Russell said it is “profound” and “a privilege” to help people and their families as they leave this mortal coil. “It reminds us that death is a part of life, and it makes me grateful for every day.”
“I sang to my mother often in her last years and saw how it helped her. As a professional musician, I’ve performed in nine countries, premiered new works, and sung at once-in-a-lifetime events, but [hospice] singing gives me the deepest sense of purpose, of making a difference,” Russell said.
She added, “Each of our bedside singers has experienced moments that touched them deeply. A patient in pain relaxes, labored breathing eases, estranged sisters reach out and touch, peace comes over a room where people were arguing, or a man falls asleep and his daughter says ‘That’s the first peaceful rest my Dad has had in days.’ The opportunity to perhaps influence the quality of this profound stage of life is an honor.”
Group members, who are unpaid volunteers, usually sing in trios. Over fifteen bedside singers hail from twelve towns including Pepperell, Lowell, Hudson, and Bedford.
Although provided for free at any time of the day or night, the singers are typically requested from mid-morning through mid-evening. Some requests are one-time or urgent, whereas others schedule multiple visits from the group.
When Suzanne Buell, Administrator of the Threshold Singers of Groton Hill receives a request, “she texts or e-mails the bedside singer roster and puts together the best group from the responses of who’s available. She juggles high and low voices, who’s allergic to cats, who’s likely to know a hymn request, how far singers must travel, and other factors.” Russell said, “At a bedside sing, three voices can blend so perfectly that it sounds and feels like one, which is magical!”
The chapter was founded in 2007 by Pam Espinosa, an early childhood music teacher at Indian Hill Music, the Littleton-based predecessor to Groton Hill Music. After breast cancer treatment, she read an article about the threshold choirs in her doctor’s office; she promised herself if she became cancer-free she would start a chapter. She was declared cancer-free that same day. The support of the then-Executive Director of Indian Hill Susan Randazzo was integral to the chapter’s beginning, and it fits the community outreach mission of both Indian Hill and Groton Hill.
Chapter membership in the international Threshold Singers organization (thresholdchoicrs.org) provides the group the rights for most of their large repertoire of songs as well as training, organizational resources, and a network of music directors learning from each other.
“Members on vacation can visit another chapter anywhere in the world and sing along right away because they know many of the songs,” Russell said.
They’re sponsored by Groton Hill Music Center, funded by grants and donations. Groton Hill provides them with a top-notch rehearsal space, maintains their website, provides supplies like brochures and nametags, and pays an honorarium to Russell and Buell.
Doing so fulfills part of Groton Hill’s desire “to share the transformative power of music, through teaching and performing, and to give music generously when there is need,” Buell said.
“It’s a labor of love for all involved,” Russell said.
As a long-time music educator and voice faculty at Groton Hill, Russell helps with training.
Because some members have never had voice lessons and may have sung very different genres of music, she explains and helps implement “the vocal techniques needed to sing softly throughout their ranges, stay on pitch, read music, and blend,” Russell said.
She’s “had a wonderful life in music, and a lot of help from mentors and colleagues along the way,” including at Groton Hill. She said “this service is a way to give back” and recommends it to community members looking for a life-changing way to volunteer.
The Threshold Singers are always seeking new members who can carry a tune and can learn high, medium, and low parts within their own range. While many volunteers have sung in church choirs, community choruses, or other community singing, there are also both professional musicians and people who’ve never sung in a group before. Some have personal experience as caregivers or with the death of a loved one but it isn’t a prerequisite.
Rehearsals take place in Groton on the first and third Wednesdays of every month from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Interested singers should read their website and contact Buell to arrange to attend a rehearsal and answer any questions.
“People progress at their own rate toward being qualified for bedside singing, but it generally happens over many months of attending rehearsals…[and by] developing the vocal skills necessary to hold one’s part in a trio and blend well,” Russell said. “Rehearsals are a source of restoration, inspiration, and community. Singers often tell me they feel refreshed and calmer afterward.”
Contact the service by emailing Buell at zanbuell@gmail.com. More information can be found on their web site at https://grotonhill.org/community-engagement/threshold-singers-at-groton-hill/.
