Gig Harbor Y Seniors Share Talents Through New Choir

GIG HARBOR. WA — Jean Kopta has enjoyed a rich musical
career. She has taught voice lessons, directed choirs and sang in
the Seattle Opera Chorus. But it’s her musical involvement in Gig
Harbor, now that she’s retired, that she says beats all those
experiences.

Kopta, who lives in Olalla, is the founder of the Red Barn
Singers, a choir that grew out of the Silver Sneakers group meeting
at the Gig Harbor Y. She had been retired just for two years when
she joined the Sneakers, a fitness group for seniors.

“I looked around at the group in the YMCA and thought, ‘Oh, I
bet there are a lot of people that would like to sing.’ … The
thought occurred to me that it would be nice to have a small choir,
just to do caroling,” she says.

A performance by Kopta and an 8-year-old boy for a Silver
Sneakers walking group attracted about 40 people to a Canterwood
residence in the fall of 2009. Kopta was unaware that her friend,
Shirley Wirthgen, was circulating the question around the room
whether people would want to be in a choir with Kopta as
director.

“I just knew that this was a love of Jean’s life, to be in
music, and I knew that some of the people loved to sing. So I just
put the two together,” Wirthgen says.

When the host of the performance, Rod McGraw, heard about the
idea, he offered his barn, which has a piano, for rehearsals and
performances. About 40 people showed up for the first meeting — and
the Red Barn Singers were born.