Singers in Harmony on Mission

Imagine 16 women, ages mid-40s to 95. Now picture them dolled up in long black skirts and red sequined tops, with earrings to match. Give them fantastic voices that easily produce four-part harmony, add a professional choral director and you’ve got the Chansonettes, a local singing group that has wowed civic organizations, schoolchildren and senior citizens--free of charge--for nearly 46 years.

“These women are the most professional of all the entertainment that comes here,” said Liz Lerner, executive director of Chatsworth Gardens Retirement Center. “To see elderly eyes light up with such enthusiasm is uplifting.”

A quick survey of the center’s dining room, packed with 198 seniors and their family members on a recent chilly Friday afternoon, revealed the finger-snapping, toe-tapping, lip-syncing reaction the chorus always elicits when it sings familiar tunes such as “Feast of Lights,” “Mister Santa” and “Carol of the Bells,” under the crisp direction of Dorothy Cohen.

“I’m a very talented person,” said the 77-year-old choral director, a former professional singer and musician. “I’m not blowing my horn, I’m just honest about what I do well. And I have a natural aptitude for music.”

The Chansonettes agree.

“Dorothy is the greatest,” said Ida Engel, 95, an original Chansonette and one of the group’s most beloved soloists. “Her knowledge of music is so great that she could be with a very classical choral group. She’s with us, and we feel lucky.”

To talk with Cohen, you’d think she’s the lucky one, spending countless hours molding mostly unprofessional, but deeply committed, singers into a cohesive group of vocalists, including divas such as Rae Lips, whose music-hall number “I Took My Harp” brought the retirement house down.

“I’m a terrible taskmaster,” Cohen said. “I drive them nuts, but I like the shows to be professional. You simply can’t believe the sound that comes out of them.”

At Friday’s concert, Engel, who at 85 won a $701 first-prize singing award on “The Gong Show,” brought the audience to their feet with her rousing rendition of “You Make Me Feel So Young,” followed by Renee Gorsey Greenberg’s hilarious “Ya Gotta Ring Them Bells.”

“I allow solos only from those who can carry it,” Cohen said. “They have to grab the audience.”

No problem there.

“My feet haven’t stayed still since [the program] started,” said Chatsworth Gardens resident Rosalie Witt. “They bring a little of everything and something for everyone.”

From their humble beginnings in 1953, when a group of PTA moms created a singing group to entertain schoolchildren, the 35 Chansonettes eventually wrote bylaws for their nonprofit organization, which they have taken to professional clubs and temples, among many performance venues, ever since.

Cohen took over the director’s reins 10 years ago, after a career with the Michigan Opera Company in Detroit and raising her four children with her husband, Marcus, in Granada Hills.

With about 15 to 20 annual concerts, the Chansonettes manage to enjoy full lives outside the group while still exercising the musical talents they’ve nurtured over the years.

“This group helps me express what I do best,” Cohen said. “Music is a part of my life and I get a buzz from it. We’re all good friends who get to experience the satisfaction of work well done.”

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