Lillie Newman wields a microphone as she walks around the Great Room of Brookdale Gardens in Tarzana. She doesn’t need it.
The program’s manager at the senior living facility admits to some excitement as she checks on members of the Voices of Brookdale, the choir she started two years ago.
“Florence, Peggy, are you ready?” Newman asks from the seat of a white baby grand. “Feel the song, feel the passion of it, and don’t forget the showmanship, Eve. I see you, Ruben.”
The group of 15 singers, all residents ages 76 to 101, is rehearsing for the “super big-time,” as Newman calls it: singing the national anthem at the preseason game Saturday between the Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.
“Let’s show everybody how we come together,” Newman tells the group, which has been practicing five days a week for six months. “Sit up straight, smile throughout.”
Darlene Adford, 101, is a founding member of the Voices. She’s sat through daily vocal exercises, drank a lot of honey-laden hot tea and toned her voice and posture. She said she’s excited to show off their special arrangement of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which begins with an electric guitar riff worthy of Jimi Hendrix.
“(Choir) is very relaxing and a lot of fun,” the former VA Hospital secretary said. “But I don’t know whom I’ll cheer for at the game. I’ll probably be sleepy.”
The baby of the group is Raiders fan Ruben Muñoz, 76, who moved to Brookdale a year ago.
After a career working on the RS-25 Space Shuttle Main Engine at Rocketdyne in Canoga Park, and playing some serious golf, Muñoz said he’s not too happy about having a lot of people watching him at the stadium.
But his two children and seven grandchildren will be watching, too, and that helps.
“One thing I’ve learned here is to try things, and it’s never too late to do that,” he said. “So I’ve been practicing my signature, for…
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