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Minnis Alderman, sandwiched between the Hammond digital organ to her left and the Baldwin concert grand piano to her right, stands military-straight atop the conductor's platform at the Centennial Fine Arts Center, facing members of the Ely Community Choir.
'When it comes to the choir and what we are going to sing, it depends on what the mood is, where the feeling is,' Alderman says

The diminutive 81-year-old commands respect, and the two dozen or so choir members who've gathered for their Wednesday-night practice wait quietly for their cue.



As the dual keyboardists inch their way into this evening's section of Theodore Dubois' daunting The Seven Last Words Of Christ, Alderman - knees bent slightly, as if ready to spring into the choir loft - launches into the score, gesticulating, singing.

Some choir members are having a tough time navigating Dubois, but after a few false starts, and under Alderman's guidance, things begin to fall in place.

The choir is scheduled to present The Seven Last Words of Christ on Palm Sunday, more than a month away, and Alderman is confident, as usual, the performance will be top-notch. Still, why make life difficult for the choir by choosing Dubois?

"When it comes to the choir and what we are going to sing, it depends on what the mood is, where the feeling is," Alderman says back at her shop, Knit Knook and Gift Gamut, 1280 Ave. F.

"There seems to be a more serious mood this year. I think people are really wondering what they are going to do economically."

Hence, this year's choice for Dubois.

This is heavy stuff coming from the 4-foot, 10-inch, 80-pound Alderman. Diminutive, yes, but she's no lightweight; she can be very intense at times, followed by fits of laughter.

She's a skilled raconteur, a dramatist with perfect timing.

In the course of her eight decades, she'll tell you, she's mastered the piano, violin, saxophone, sousaphone, accordion, French horn and other instruments, studied tap dance, ballet and modern dance, and taught English, speech, drama, band, marching band, orchestra and chorus.

She'll also tell you, reluctantly though, she's a member of Mensa - the lone member in Ely as far as she knows. "There used to be three of us, but the other two died," says with a muffled laugh.

Mensa is the largest and oldest high-IQ society in the world. To be accepted into membership, a candidate must take a supervised IQ test and score in the 98th percentile.

Alderman has been an Ely fixture for half a century, arriving in 1960.

A native of the tobacco-farming, yet culturally rich, small town of Douglas, Ga. (her southern accent is still there, though diminished through years of dramatic performances and vocalizing - she often sings while driving), Alderman has spent a lifetime living, teaching and promoting the arts and culture, starting at an early age.

When she was 11 years old in 1939, she won an NBC radio competition ("an interpretive memorized monologue called, 'Daddy Dresses the Baby'") in New York City. So impressed was NBC with pre-teen Alderman's monologue, the corporation promised the 7th-grader a job - once she finished college.

She declined the offer ("I didn't follow through on that. I guess I was scared of New York.") She also declined a later offer, this time based on her operatic singing skills, from the Metropolitan Opera Company.

"My teacher cautioned me and said: 'They will own you, tell you what to do, when to do it, what to sing, and what not to sing. That's how it is, if you accept this contract. You're not easily owned, you know.' So I did not accept the contact. I am not sorry. I enjoy the variety of stuff that I do," she says.

She adds, as an aside and revealing another facet of her personality, that she was not happy with the Met over its treatment of Marian Anderson.

"She was probably the most prominent contralto of all time, and the Metropolitan could not see to contract with her because she was black," Alderman says, her voice rising. "That just really ticked me off. Greasepaint works just as well for the dark skin as it does for the white skin."

After graduating from high school in 1945, Alderman entered Georgia State College for Women in Milledgeville - now Georgia College & State University. (The writer Flannery O' Connor graduated the year Alderman enrolled.) There, Alderman majored in music, speech and drama, with a minor in physical education.

She taught for a few years, including a stint in Wells, before returning to school to work on a master's degree at Murray State University in Murray, Ky.

"I thought I was going into education, but I got tricked into counseling and psychology." She came to Ely in 1960 to work as a high school counselor. (In later years she worked as a psychotherapist for the state in its mental hygiene division and at the employment office as a counselor.)

But music was the driving force in Alderman's life, and she became involved in the Ely Community Choir in 1962.

"Nobody told us to stop, so we're still at it," she says of the group that has been together for nearly half a century. In addition to her decades-long involvement with the choir, she continues to offer private music lessons and has taught hundreds of students over the years.

Alderman also spearheaded the once-vibrant Community Concert Association and its concert series, which during its peak had some 400 members. The association, she explains with remorse, is on hold. The agency that used to book acts folded a few years back.

"We haven't been able to focus on getting the talent through here. It was easier when Columbia Artists (the booking agent) would send a representative in. We're really working on reviving that, and we'll get that done somehow."

While she laments the decline in the area's arts scene - she is particularly saddened by the cutting of music and arts programs in the school system over the years - she is nevertheless optimistic arts, and music in particular, will continue to be a driving force in the community, in education, and in human development.

"I had a student conduct a test, listening to Mozart. She had kids do some studying while listening to classical music and then studying listening to popular music," she says. "They remembered more when they listened to classical music. Something about the classical music triggered functioning of the brain."

Researchers, she adds, have discovered there are sections of the brain that continue to grow, regardless of age.

"Music is the only thing that works both sides of the brain at the same time, and parts of the brain grow more efficiently with music."

Minnis Alderman would know.

Note: http://www.elynews.com/articles/2010/02/24/lifestyle/life01.txt
Minnis Alderman in harmony with life
By PATRICK TIMOTHY MULLIKIN Ely Times Reporter
Published on Wednesday, February 24, 2010