New Horizons Has a New Director
Widely recognized for 25 + years of performances for senior groups and schools in the Philadelphia area, the New Horizons Glee Club comes out swinging and singing in our 2017 - 2018 season under the fresh new direction of Mary Eileen Johnston.
SELMA SAVITZ
In 2014, Director Emeritus Selma Savitz marked her 25th anniversary with the group. Under her guidance, New Horizons won a Pennsylvania Gold and Silver Award as a volunteer group and earned commendation from Governor Ed Rendell for volunteer service. Savitz herself was the 2006 recipient of a Volunteer of the Year award.
More than just a community choir, the award-winning New Horizons Senior Glee Club boasts over 40 singers, a 5 piece band, dancers, costumes and a professional MC. As a traveling troupe, this spirited ensemble of all volunteer singers and musicians has brought joyful entertainment to the Delaware Valley for over 25 years. Under the direction of Selma Savitz, concerts at senior residences, nursing homes, clubs and community venues number about 30 per year. Popular demand and enthusiastic performance ratings have ensured ongoing return engagements as well as invitations to perform on new stages.
The Glee Club also schedules enrichment concerts targeted to elementary school children entitled KIDS ON STAGE! The program has been widely praised for its musical quality, and for interactive and inter-generational values.
More than just a community choir, the award-winning New Horizons Senior Glee Club boasts over 40 singers, a 5 piece band, dancers, costumes and a professional MC. As a traveling troupe, this spirited ensemble of all volunteer singers and musicians has brought joyful entertainment to the Delaware Valley for over 25 years. Under the direction of Selma Savitz, concerts at senior residences, nursing homes, clubs and community venues number about 30 per year. Popular demand and enthusiastic performance ratings have ensured ongoing return engagements as well as invitations to perform on new stages.
The Glee Club also schedules enrichment concerts targeted to elementary school children entitled KIDS ON STAGE! The program has been widely praised for its musical quality, and for interactive and inter-generational values.
Some are married, some no longer have mates. We all volunteer.
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New Horizons Senior Glee Club
Mary Eileen Johnston, Director/Pianist
Winnie Moss, Anita Beckett, Jerry Kates: EmCees
The Ensemble
Phil Anders, Anita Beckett, Ilene Beckman,
Jim Bracken, Ruth Cohen, Pat Cocco, Jerry Kates, Lee Kugel, Michael McDonnell, Helen Meyers, Nina Morgenstern,
Winifred Moss, Joan Rayfield, Naomi Rubin,
Linda Schwartz, Claire Sheinman,
Randy Shupp, Shari Steinberg,
Gerald Williams, Debbie Zug
Jim Bracken, Ruth Cohen, Pat Cocco, Jerry Kates, Lee Kugel, Michael McDonnell, Helen Meyers, Nina Morgenstern,
Winifred Moss, Joan Rayfield, Naomi Rubin,
Linda Schwartz, Claire Sheinman,
Randy Shupp, Shari Steinberg,
Gerald Williams, Debbie Zug
The Musicians
Selma Savitz - Director and Pianist
George Cocco - Drums; Henri Mikol - Accordion
Bill Lautenberger - Bass and Euphonium
Anita Beckett, Linda Schwartz - Gourds, Shakers
Jerry Kates - Conga Drum
Special Thanks:
Haverford Trust, Beneficial Bank, Royal Bank, Nova Bank
Narberth Business Association, American Legion Post 667,
And many generous individual donors!
A tax deductible donation may be made to: New Horizons Senior Glee Club
470 Conshohocken State Road, Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004
For information call: 610-664-2458
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Main Line Times - Published: Thursday, November 11, 2010
By Joel Fram
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Sister Nell Carbin
Photo by Pete Bannan
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On Tuesdays, Sister Nell sings with the New Horizons Senior Glee Club. The award-winning ensemble of 41 singers has offered concerts throughout the Philadelphia area for 20 years, featuring Broadway show tunes, selections from films and the big-band era, and, seasonally, patriotic songs and Christmas and Hanukkah music. The group performs about 35 times a year, mainly in churches, synagogues, schools, nursing homes and senior centers. Each May it offers a free concert at the Kimmel Center in honor of Older Americans Month. Singing with the group, Sister Nell says, is “a lot of fun” and, she adds, “I feel very fortunate to be a part of it.”
On Wednesdays, Sister Nell visits the Holy Child Center in Rosemont, where she mends and alters sisters’ clothes. She has put her sewing abilities to good use elsewhere as well, including making stuffed animals for children at the Providence Center in North Philadelphia, which serves local children in need of a helping hand. She stopped making them when, she says, “they had enough of those.” She does needlework while watching television.
On Thursdays, Sister Nell visits the Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Philadelphia to read to a blind woman there, “whatever material she wants me to read.” Arrangements and transportation for a number of Sister Nell’s work assignments are made through the Bryn Mawr office of Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) of Montgomery County.
Sister Nell grew up in Montrose, Mass., a suburb of Boston. She was the oldest of 10; the next eight were brothers and the last a sister. Four of her brothers are still on earth, she says, and her other four brothers and her sister are “in heaven.” Family reunions have occurred in such far-flung places as St. Louis, Massachusetts, Ireland and Kodiak, Alaska.
Next year Sister Nell will celebrate 70 years of religious life. She is with Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus, an order that serves in a variety of educational, pastoral and spiritual ministries internationally; close to home, the order operates Rosemont College. Sister Nell’s career exemplifies the order’s mission. She served in Nigeria and Ghana for 29 years, from 1949 to 1978, teaching scripture, biology and music, followed by a year in Slovakia teaching English as a Second Language to other sisters. After returning to the U.S. in the early 1980s, she served in a large number of locales, again teaching ESL. She has lived in a group home in Bryn Mawr for four years, her 44th address. “The police are getting closer,” she says with a laugh.
A number of parties – surprise and otherwise – were put on for Sister Nell’s 90th birthday earlier this year. It would not be surprising if many more are to follow in future years.
