The Healing Power of Community Singing

The day after the Women’s March in 2017, Gina Samardge was scrolling through social media when a video stopped her. Singer-songwriter MILCK and a group of women were flash-mobbing at the DC march, singing her defiant anthem “Quiet.” The harmonies, collective breath, and sense of shared purpose struck deep. “I immediately knew I had to sing this song in a community with women,” Samardge says. 

Samardge, the founder of Compass Arts in Beacon, put a call out to the women she knew, and word spread. At the first rehearsal, 35 women showed up. By October of that year, the Beacon Rising Choir was born. What started with 13 women performing at a Newburgh fundraiser has grown to 87 members. “I am in love with this choir,” the now-director says. “It’s life-giving. I’m in my element when I’m there.”

Each week, Beacon Rising singers trickle into the rehearsal room early, greeting one another with hugs and easy laughter as they shed coats and settle in. Voices mingle softly as people catch up before rehearsal begins.  Soon, the chatter gives way to stillness. Samardge invites the group to close their eyes and take a long, steady breath. The sound of inhaling and exhaling fills the room. A few gentle notes follow, mantra singing that eases the body into sound. Then, the group gears up to prepare their repertoire for the next concert. 

Science of Singing

That shared breath does more than create music. Coordinating diaphragmic inhalations, standing with good posture, aligning tempo, and listening closely to others activates systems deep in the body. “Singing your heart out” is more than an expression of joy; it’s physiological. Studies show that group singing synchronizes heart rates and breathing patterns, helping regulate the nervous system and lower stress. A 2013 study published in Frontiers in Psychology found that choral singing increases heart rate variability, a measure linked to cardiovascular health, and the Harvard Health Letter reported that singing shifts the body toward its rest-and-recovery state, easing stress. 

“Singing is a full brain and body activity,” says Kevin Murphy, a New York City-based vocal teacher. “We read music off a page and translate that visual information into movement, breath, expression, and sound.” Group singing boosts cardiovascular function, improves cognition, memory, and executive function, reduces stress hormones, and supports lung and brain health, he says.

Murphy has seen the benefits firsthand with clients recovering from neurological conditions. One man with Parkinson’s disease came to him on his speech pathologist’s recommendation, struggling with a weak, tremoring voice. Through singing familiar Elvis tunes, he began to stabilize his tone and project more easily. Murphy believes that singing worked in part because it regulates the autonomic nervous system.

He explains that extending the exhale when singing a musical phrase increases carbon dioxide levels in the bloodstream, opening tissue in the lungs and blood vessels, leading to better respiratory health and regulating the nervous system. This idea can be seen in a variety of modalities, including Pranayama yoga breath work and the Buteyko breathing technique, which involves taking deep breaths in through the nose while keeping the mouth closed.

Emotional Resonance

At Beacon Rising, that physiological shift blends seamlessly with emotional release. “We’re not here for perfection,” Samardge says, “but for the process of singing in community.” The group’s shared agreements—“Be present,” “This is a learning space,” and “It’s okay to cry”—set the tone for a rehearsal space that feels emotionally safe. 

Their repertoire spans songs by BIPOC, LGBTQIA, and women composers, often reflecting current events and social movements. “We don’t shy away from complex emotions or social justice themes,” Samardge says. “We’re here to explore the human experience through music—to protest, to grieve, to heal.” 

That vulnerability sometimes surfaces mid-song. Samardge recalls a young singer who began crying during a piece that reminded them of a lost grandparent. “Other chorus members went to comfort them immediately,” she says. “The conversation afterward wasn’t about how to get them to sing the song; it was about what felt safest in that moment.” In that space, the music becomes a kind of therapy, where emotion is met with compassion rather than correction.

A study published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience in 2015supports what choruses like Beacon Rising know intuitively: Group singing releases endorphins and oxytocin, the same bonding hormones that promote trust and joy. Research published in The Oxford Handbook has linked these biochemical shifts to increased empathy and emotional regulation. 

“There’s a cathartic experience in singing your rage, grief, and joy,” Samardge says. “There’s a deep need for us to connect to these emotions, to move through them, and doing this in community is powerful and healing.” 

“When I don’t sing, I don’t feel like myself,” says Beacon Rising member Elizabeth Greenblatt. “It’s such an important stress relief for me, a way to be in my body again. The experience of sound moving through me impacts all my cells and changes my whole mood and sense of self.”

Greenblatt joined the chorus in its first year, newly relocated to Beacon and looking for connection and a consistent space to sing. Now it’s become a ritual for her. “Every week, I leave rehearsal in a different state—lighter, grounded, more myself.” Greenblatt describes the music as both social and spiritual. “It’s this time I get to fully drop into myself. It impacts how I move through the rest of my life, how I show up in relationships. It’s powerful.” 

Samardge sees those shifts every week: the nervous first-timers relaxing, the shared tears, the spontaneous hand squeezes after a solo. “The way folks look at each other while they’re singing, the way they lift each other up, it’s palpable,” she says. 

Together in Tune

Community choruses like Beacon Rising often become what sociologist Ray Oldenburg termed “third places,” spaces of belonging beyond home and work that are crucial to a balanced, happy life. In Beacon, those connections take tangible form: meal trains for members who are sick, rides to rehearsal for those without transportation, getting matching tattoos, and chorus members singing at weddings and funerals. “There’s a craving for connection and meaning in people’s lives, and choirs meet that need,” Samardge says. “I’ve had people tell me this choir saved their lives.”

“Singing together is a tremendous source of stress relief, especially when the world outside feels heavy,” agrees Jen Paull, artistic director of Hudson Valley LGBTQIA a capella choir Key of Q. “People often leave rehearsal in a much better mood than when they arrived. The music we sing gives us a way to process the world and find joy. The act of gathering every week to sing, to breathe together, to listen closely creates a rare kind of social bond.” 

A study published in Sage Journals found that adults who participated in community choruses reported significantly higher social connectedness and lower feelings of loneliness than non-singers. “When a group of people are singing together, beneath the level of awareness, our nervous systems are sensing one another,” Murphy says. “Each person contributes to and is affected by the group. This synergy of coregulation encourages a sense of social connection, a sense of belonging to something bigger than oneself. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. When we practice singing with a chorus, we are honing our abilities to listen, sense ourselves better, express, and communicate.”  

“Humans are made up of a complex, dynamic system of systems,” Murphy says. “We have a circulatory system, a musculoskeletal system, a respiratory system, a nervous system, and you could even say a vocal system. All of these are constantly in conversation with one another, so changes to one affect the others. What’s important is that we spend the limited time we have on this Earth doing things we enjoy, and to me, there are few things better than singing with other humans.” 

This article appears in December 2025.