Warning: Joining a Rock Choir May Cause Extreme Joy
- Hillsdale News
- Sep 7, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 11, 2025
[September 10, 2025]
Submitted by Marie Gettel-Gilmartin
Looking for a cure for these difficult times? Join Voices Rock!
As a young girl, I fantasized about becoming a singer like many other young girls. I learned to play the guitar at 10, sang in my school talent show, and even wrote music. When my oldest child was born at just 24 weeks and stayed in Legacy Emanuel’s NICU for 117 fraught days, we sang to him every day. Now I get to sing with other rock star wannabes!
Voices Rock began as a bar choir in Denver, Colorado, in 2014. They invited people of all musical levels (from total beginners to seasoned singers) to belt out rock music together. By 2020, the choir had grown to more than 400, including multiple adult choirs and a children’s choir.
This summer, Voices Rock launched its first choir in Portland, with our fall season starting on September 11. We’ll meet at Hillsdale Community Church at 6948 SW Capitol Highway every Thursday for 10 weeks from 6:30-7:45pm. Not ready to commit? You can come to the first three rehearsals before you make up your mind. Once you register, the fee is $285 per session, with scholarships and payment plans available.
I love the harmonies and power we create together. And when we come across a tough section of music, it’s like solving a tough puzzle together. Our director, Caley Barstow, brings her calm, warm and encouraging energy to the group and expertly helps people of all musical abilities and backgrounds learn the music and feel confident in performing it.
Research shows music is one of the best things you can do to reduce anxiety, blood pressure, and pain as well as improve sleep quality, mood, mental alertness, and memory. Instead of doing crossword puzzles to sharpen my brain, I learn music by heart. We perform six songs each season. I get nervous before every concert, but it’s a thrill to make beautiful sounds together and have a blast!
Each time I’m feeling a little down on a Thursday, I go to choir and it always lifts me up. So many of us have experienced losses, pain, anxiety and depression, death of family members, or other grief—and music heals us, or at the very least, lightens our load a bit. Now that I’m an empty nester after sending my last kid off to college, I’m going to need Voices Rock more than ever. So many people in our community experience isolation, and a group like this is a great way to come together with your neighbors, work toward a common goal, and create powerful connections with one another.
At the end of each ten-week session, we put on a show with a live rock band. At our first show in July, nearly 20 people from Voices Rock in Denver flew to Portland to join us. We felt warmly welcomed to the community, but each of us felt supported, exhilarated, and filled with joy. On that day I was absolutely a rock star!
If you want to feel like a star, come join us. Details are on this webpage. All ages and musical backgrounds are welcome!
Marie Gettel-Gilmartin is a writer, communications manager, and entrepreneur. She lives in Multnomah Village with her husband Mike (also in Voices Rock).
How do you get music in your life? Let us know!
