Heartbeat in Concert at Ah Haa

24 Mar Heartbeat in Concert at Ah Haa

All-women a cappella group in concert Tuesday, March 31, 6:30 p.m., Ah Haa School. Free, but donations gratefully accepted.

Heartbeat

How to make your heart sing? Heartbeat, a seven-woman a cappella group, will be performing on Tuesday, March 31, in Telluride at the Ah Haa School. Included in the upbeat and intimate concert will be folk songs, pop songs, bluegrass, jazz, and even songs from Russia and Africa. The concert begins at 6:30 p.m. It is free, but donations welcome.

Singing together since 1994, the group has lots of surprises in store at their upcoming performance. The women are pulling out some old audience favorites, “but we have lots of new music, too, including many songs people will know from the radio,” says member Donna Fernald.

Heartbeat has opened the Bluegrass Festival and the Telluride Jazz Festival, toured to the Blue Sage Theater in Paonia, the Art Center in Moab, and the Sand Island Bluegrass Festival in Bluff, Utah.

“But some of our favorite concerts have been the impromptu ones, such as the post office, the bike path tunnel, the stairwell at the elementary school and even standing in the Gunnison River singing to boaters,” says member Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. “I think that part of what makes our concerts so much fun is that we have a lot of energy and spontaneity every time we perform. We’re up there having a great time making music.”

Since its inception, Heartbeat has been leaderless, “which is to say that we have seven leaders,” says member Nancy deCastro. “We all are responsible for finding music, for directing, for setting rehearsals and for doing what needs to be done. We all bring different talents to the group.”

The present group includes Telluride women Suzan Beraza, Jen Sher Birrittella, Nancy DeCastro, Donna Burd Fernald, Judith Kohin, Debbie Stevens, and Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.