Have you ever heard of a singer’s high? Similar to a runner’s high, it’s what vocalists call the rush of endorphins released by your body when you sing. That brain boost is especially profound for kids. The universal language of music can be a conduit for emotional and mental growth and creates lasting memories for kids, families and audience members alike.
Kirsten Oberoi knows this firsthand. Music was a huge part of her childhood, and her passion for bringing these benefits to all children is why she’s this week’s nominee for the Joy Beat. Oberoi founded the South Shore Children’s Chorus, a nonprofit choral program for students from all walks of life — no experience or audition required. She joined GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath to share her musical journey. What follows is a lightly edited transcript.
Arun Rath: First off, before we talk about the chorus, I mentioned music was part of your childhood, right? Give us a bit of background on your experience. What was your musical diet growing up? And what made singing powerful to you?
Kirsten Oberoi: My whole family was musical, and my mother and my father were both music educators. My mom, especially, was a big lover of music and what it could do for your soul. She taught public school music education for her whole career, and watching her teach and inspire students was something that really impacted me.
I grew up doing theater and chorus all in the South Shore. It really became a part of who I am, how I expressed myself and how I grew as a human being. It was a really big part of my upbringing — that then sort of turned around and became everything I do, all the time.
Rath: Is it hard then to look back to a time that you fell in love with music? Or [was] the love always there?
Oberoi: The love was always there because it was always around. I remember when I was 2 or 3 years old, my family would get together on New Year’s, and we would have jam sessions. Everyone would bring instruments and sing together, sort of in the way that things used to be when the country was started, when music was the center of community and the center of gatherings.
That being my upbringing, [singing] was just so natural to do all of the time that it’s not really surprising that I ended up doing it for myself and for kids in my community.
Rath: Let’s talk about that now — because this was back in 2016, when you founded the chorus?
Oberoi: Yes, I founded the chorus in 2016, when I had just graduated college a few years ago and was trying to figure out how I wanted to teach, and my own teaching philosophy.
But what I did know is that a children’s chorus experience — a community experience, that is so prevalent in Boston with many different organizations — wasn’t really prevalent where I was from, which is the South Shore. I grew up in Quincy, which is where the organization is based out of.
So, I figured, why not give it a try? I founded the nonprofit in January of 2016, and we had our first concert in May of 2016 and had 35 students. Now, we have almost 200 [students] that we serve per year.
Rath: What was it like when — the first time you had a group of kids together singing in unison — [it] worked out?
Oberoi: It was beautiful. It was really exciting and also really, really nerve-wracking because all of a sudden, I was 24 and liable for these children.
But one of the things that’s been really fun and exciting about the mirror of South Shore Children’s Chorus’ journey — and my own — is that I can kind of see myself growing as a person and as a teacher and as an educator and as a musician.
The South Shore Children’s Chorus, the way that it grows [is] it sort of mirrors my path. I think that that’s really been an interesting part of founding an organization for students. It really kind of reflects who I am and what I believe.
Rath: What has it been like with these students as individuals? You know, bringing this to a place where they didn’t have access to something like this?
Oberoi: At first, it was a little tricky because the community didn’t really know or understand what a community children’s chorus was or why it had value. I remember at one of our very first rehearsals in 2016, a parent [was] surprised that they would pay for this, that it would be something that we would charge for, because it just wasn’t a part of the culture.
[The chorus] just graduated a whole group of seniors, many of whom started with me in 2016. Seeing how they’ve grown through the organization, how they champion its mission, and how students can connect and find themselves through the vessel of music and singing together has just been really incredible.
That’s something we really strive for at South Shore Children’s Chorus: that the most important thing is the person — the individual — and the rest of it we can figure out.
Rath: I’m just wondering if you can describe what’s been called the “singer’s high,” that sort of way your brain is buzzing when you’re in that choral situation. [Tell us] what it’s like and why it’s so great for these young brains to get their brains buzzing in that way.
Oberoi: I think the high comes from trust. When you’re singing in a chorus, you have to trust that the 30, 40, 50, 60, 100 people around you are going to make the sound that you expect when it happens.
Having to engage so deeply with other humans in that trust is a very vulnerable thing, and vulnerable risks make us excited. It’s that feeling of “I’m going to get on the roller coaster,” because you know what happens. You can see the track in front of you, and yet there’s this rush because there is a risk.
I think what it does for students and children, and teens especially, is that [it] really helps them connect to their peers and to the adults around them. Everything is changing around them all the time, including themselves. But when you sing, it is 100% you. It is your unique sound. It is your body. And you’re trusting those around you to know that sound.
Even further, especially at South Shore Children’s Chorus, one of the things that we really preach is: not only do you know that sound and trust that sound, but you love and adore that sound. That’s such an empowering feeling — that your voice can be heard. And not only heard, but loved and appreciated for its uniqueness.
That’s the “singer’s high” right there. It’s an empowerment to be fully human and fully yourself, and there’s truly no better feeling [than] when you’re loved and accepted for exactly who you are.
Would you like to nominate someone or something for the Joy Beat? Leave us a voicemail at (617) 300-BEAT [2328].
