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At campus health center, Tangy Voce provides 'emotional therapy' and a chance to sing during the workday

By Wendy Edelstein

A surprising sound greets visitors who come to University Health Services during Tuesday’s midday hour. Choral music spills out from the radiology waiting area just beyond UHS’s main entrance.
Bunny Stevens (Wendy Edelstein/NewsCenter photo)

Bunny Stevens

Bunny Stevens (Wendy Edelstein/NewsCenter photo)

For a decade, Tangy Voce, the care center’s chorus, has rehearsed most Tuesdays from noon to 1 p.m. The 15- to 20-member chorus brings together current and retired Berkeley staff — and the occasional faculty member — to make music in the middle of their workday and perform four times a year.

Last week, the group moved center-stage, so to speak, when it performed for 25 people in the Tang Center’s atrium. The 10-song program included gospel, an Irish folk song, a Bach-inspired piece, Duke Ellington and Bob Russell’s “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore,” and “Where Is Love?” from the musical “Oliver.”

The driving force behind Tangy Voce is Bunny Stevens, the group’s director. Stevens led the music department at Head-Royce School for 30 years. In 2000, Stevens began helping one of UHS’s administrators coordinate the Health Net program and annual flu clinics. Volunteering at the Tang Center, she says, gives her a way to stay involved in education.

The chorus’s roster includes one active employee from the Tang Center, a retired pharmacist and physical therapist, and current staffers from across campus — including the optometry clinic, International House, animal care, and Student Musical Activities, as well as a retired chemical-engineering prof.

Songs from Tangy Voce’s repertoire

Yonder Come Day (1:58 min.) Yonder Come Day