I started crying almost as soon as I started singing. On a recent Saturday, I stood alongside forty other singers at a large church in Huntley. It was a rehearsal for a reunion concert made up of former singers who had sung in Concert Choir at the University of Illinois sometime during our director’s 27-year tenure (1982-2011). We had one day to rehearse twelve songs and to prepare for a concert that night. Everyone came willingly, and you could sense the magic in the air of being a part of a group that had once been such an important part of our undergraduate experience. Oh, to be in college again. It was like we were getting to re-live a time gone by. Now we were 30- to 60-somethings. During the morning rehearsal, our director suggested for the a cappella version of “Danny Boy” that we make a circle around the perimeter of the church and sing it in mixed formation. … [continue reading...] about An Antidote to Loneliness