DELMAR — “Let It Shine.”
The spotlight was on the Friendship Singers choir at a recent morning rehearsal at Delmar Reformed Church, as the singers finished their practice with a joyous rendition of “Let It Shine” before parting ways for the day.
At each rehearsal, music conductor Marie Liddle recites a mantra that she keeps inside her songbook. Liddle said she hopes it helps members gain perspective into what it means to sing and tell a story through music.
“We are not just performers,” she said. “How many ways can we transmit the
story of music? The stature? How you stand, movements of your arms, legs, body, eyes, mouth, what we sound like, and the very last thing is how the story is told.”
Liddle said that sometimes the things she asks the singers to do on stage might seem ridiculous, but “we all wind up laughing somewhere along the lines and we have a grand time.”
The Friendship Singers are currently preparing for their first two spring concerts. They will perform at The Eddy in Niskayuna Wednesday, May 31, and the Delmar Reformed Church Friday, June 9.
The June 9 concert, free and open to the public, will benefit Family Promise of the Capital Region, an organization that assists homeless families in the area. Spectators have the option to place money inside an available donation box at the concert. The donation, according to member Terry Strasser, is strictly voluntary.
Family Promise of the Capital Region has been addressing homelessness since April 2015, using trained volunteers and local congregations to help homeless families secure affordable and safe housing. “Graduated families” continue to receive aid and support.
Family Promise is a program supported by many Albany area churches that support families at a week at a time for evening meals and overnight accommodations for a week. In order to provide overnight support, the churches must have a male and female parishioner volunteer to stay overnight with the families.
Delmar is one of 13 host sites for the program. Other hosting sites nearby include Albany, Voorheesville, Rensselaer, Schenectady and Rotterdam.
Carolyn Beiter, a Friendship Singers soprano, is involved with the Family Promise organization. She and her husband stayed over one night while two families stayed at their church, Delmar Methodist Church.
“This is because the shelter can’t take them at night,” Beiter explained. “They don’t have anyone at night, so the family comes in the late afternoon. We provide dinner for them and they stay for the week.”
Beiter said hosting the family is rewarding and not a burden.
The choir has previously raised money for To Life! and an Albany homeless shelter. At a prior event, they raised nearly $1,800.
The choir performs six concerts a year during spring and the Christmas season. Their performances include musical standards for audiences to sing with and respond to at venues such as St. Peter’s Facility, Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, and memory care centers providing care to Alzheimer’s patients.

The Friendship Singers
Formed in 1982, the choir currently consists of 17 members ranging in age from their 60s to mid-80s. Old age and COVID took away some of the previous members. The choir features Liddle, a retired Bethlehem substitute teacher, on conducting duties; co-choreography and music accompaniment by pianist Peg Dorgan; and choreography instruction by Suzanne Mason.
Most of the singers are from Delmar, but others reside in Albany, Niskayuna and Schenectady.The group is open to other seniors who reside outside the area. They must try out and be able to carry a tune.
Rehearsals take place every Tuesday starting in mid-September to December. Rehearsals begin again during the second week of January and last through late-May or June.
The singers do not get paid and do it for the love of music and friendship, Liddle said.
“It’s fun, and it’s a place to come and make friends.” she said. “A lot of our people had things happen in their life, and they’ve made friendships with other Friendship Singers.”
Beiter said the whole experience is a blast.
“Talk about fun, it’s a lot of fun!” she said.
According to Strasser, the singers schedule their vacations to accommodate rehearsals because they don’t want to miss singing with their friends.
Liddle said people often stop her to ask about the group’s upcoming events.
“We’ve had people that call us in the middle of the year (asking), ‘When is your concert going to be,’” Liddle said. “ When they recognize you and you’re in the supermarket, they go, ‘I loved what you did in the Friendship Singers. We saw you wherever you were, and we had great fun.’”
The impact of
Friendship Singers
Liddle remembers two special Friendship Singer moments that have stood out to her: teaching students choreography at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, and watching a man moved to tears of joy during a performance at a local memory care center.
“One year, we did a week-long program for students at The Troy Savings Bank Music Hall and that was so much fun.” Liddle said. “We did hand-clapping and foot tapping and had the whole audience doing it with us to the Jive.”
Liddle found joy during the pandemic going to places where members sang to people who didn’t have anybody to visit them. They performed upbeat and sentimental songs. She realized during a visit to St. Peter’s Facility that music and dance have a profound way of making a difference in peoples’ lives.
“We went to St. Peter’s, a nursing home, and at the end of the program, one of the nurses came up to me and said, ‘Do you know this man has never, ever showed any emotion about anything? One of the songs you sang, there was a tear coming from him,’” Liddle recalled.
She said she shared that conversation with the rest of the group, reminding them that they never know who they are reaching with their music.
“Don’t give up. Just because they’re not reacting physically to us doesn’t mean that they’re not there,” Liddle said.
Several memory care residents at St. Peters sang and listened to the songs. One even played the “drums” with their legs and hands to the music, said Liddle.
“Music can reach them sometimes when nothing else does,” Strasser said.
Liddle said singing is only part of what they do. They also want the audience to see them moving and reacting to the music.”
“If you stand there and sing beautiful music and it’s as dull as it can be, you might as well go to sleep. I want the audience to go “ooh” and pay attention to every single part that we do,” she said.