By Mike Schnitzel
"We couldn't begin the season without an accompanist," said Charles Zipperlen, who taught music at Valley Stream schools for 38 years and has directed the chorale since 1980. "Luckily, one of our members, who is a fellow judge with NYSSMA [the New York State School Music Association], sent [the new accompanist's] name in to me, I contacted her, and she was interested."
Shirley Novak of Howard Beach began rehearsing with the group on Sept. 26. "I enjoy it very much," she said. "The music is stuff I know and can work easily with."
Novak, a former professional singer, has been accompanying musical groups across Long Island for the past 50 years, including the Bel Canto Chorale and the Friday Woodmere Music Club.
The chorale, which rehearses on Mondays at Grace Methodist Church, will perform twice this year, first at the Plattdeutsche Home in Franklin Square in December, and then at Grace Church sometime in the spring.
"We have about 35 members right now, but I'd love to get more," said Zipperlen. "We're an older group, but I'd love to get some younger people. It's very hard to get young people involved in groups these days."
Zipperlen explained that membership in the chorale is open to anyone, whether they can read music or not. "All you have to do is show up to rehearsal and you're in," he said.
The Keynoters formed in 1953, when Zipperlen's father, Carl, recruited about 15 men to sing, rehearsing in the basement of his home in Malverne. "There was an adult educational women's singing group that was about to fold, so we absorbed them," Charles Zipperlen recalled. After the group got to be too big for his father's basement, it began rehearsing at Grace Church.
"I've been a music teacher all of my life, and it's just a lot of fun," said Zipperlen. "[The Keynoters exist] because we love music."
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