Evelyn in 10-Alarm Fire: We Won't Shut Up, November 2025
Young@Heart is grieving. On Tuesday we found out that our amazing singer Evelyn Harris had suddenly and unexpectedly passed away. This was even more shocking to us because just 24 hours before receiving the news she was at our Monday morning rehearsal, where she sang, joked and seemed to be in good health and great spirits.
Evelyn’s last performance was at rehearsal that day, where she sang a particularly beautiful version of She’s Leaving Home by The Beatles. Our board president Marc Berman (a big admirer of Evelyn’s) was there and happened to film it on his phone. We share the video with you all here.
Evelyn at rehearsal on Monday, singing She's Leaving Home
Yesterday we all came together to share our grief, love and admiration for Evelyn in the wake of her sudden passing. What was palpable was the sadness, but also the immense respect everyone had for Evelyn. As each person spoke it was clear that she had an enormous personal impact on each one of our singers and band members.
Evelyn was truly one of a kind, a real force of nature. When she sang and performed, she was music incarnate. From the time that Evelyn was a young girl, she was determined to become a professional musician. In her 20s and 30s she was a member of the world-renowned women’s a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock, who she toured the world with for 18 years. In 1988 she was nominated for a Grammy for her original composition Emergency, which was about South African apartheid and featured on the 1987 Sweet Honey album Live at Carnegie Hall.
Evelyn singing I Want You (She's So Heavy) by The Beatles, May 2025
In the early 2000s Evelyn settled in Western Massachusetts, where she became a big and beloved figure in the music scene.
When Evelyn originally reached out to our chorus director Bob in the summer of 2023 and said she wanted to join the chorus, we were honored. We also were worried that she might get bored of being a part of Y@H. Y@H is a group of singers with a real range of singing talents and abilities – and Evelyn’s professional experience far exceeded everyone else’s.
But Evelyn never grew bored, instead she became a vital member of the Young@Heart family and was a great supporter of everyone else. She told us often how she appreciated being one of the group, and how she enjoyed not having to be responsible for managing, directing or producing the performances. She loved showing up and just giving it her all in the songs she was given.
And what a treat that was for us. Evelyn never sang a song the same way twice. Listening to the way in which she interpreted (and then re-interpreted) songs was a total joy and an education for us all.
Evelyn's performance of Janis Joplin's Piece of My Heart, November 2024
In two years with Young@Heart, she performed her own unique versions of a whole list of songs, including Middle of the Road by the Pretenders, Buffalo Springfield’s For What It’s Worth, Fiona Apple’s Criminal, Technotronic's Pump up the Jam in a duet with Ray Homstead, Piece of My Heart by Janis Joplin, and three different Beatles songs: She’s Leaving Home, I Want You and an endearing duet with Randy Bartlett of Something just months before he sadly passed away in October of this year.
In our latest show 10-Alarm Fire: We Won’t Shut Up, just a month ago, she opened the show with Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On. Halfway through the song the electricity went out in part of the building, and the sound system went out with it. Evelyn kept going and carried that song without a microphone. When it finally came back on, she exclaimed "No electricity can stop me, baby!"
Evelyn singing Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, November 2025
In that same show she also sang The Isley Brothers’ Fight the Power as a duet with chorus member John Rinehart. Due to a last-minute change we asked her to do it with only two days’ notice. She agreed to do it and rehearsed the song tirelessly in the days leading up to the performance.
We were going to premiere the concert film of this particular show online this weekend, but we have decided to move it to January 24th, 2026 out of respect for Evelyn’s passing. What you will experience when you see the show is not just Evelyn’s amazing skill, but the way in which she supports others in the group. The show also spoke to her political beliefs and years of fighting for civil rights since her early days at Howard University.
One of our favorite moments with Evelyn happened this past October, driving back from a gig in Maine. We were only able to bring a small subsection of our group, and we were driving in a 12-seat van which was pretty tightly packed. Unprompted, Evelyn started singing spirituals as only she could, and everyone else joined in. It was mesmerizing. Evelyn kept on singing the group of spirituals as if they were on a continuous loop, but each time she would add something different. It was like listening to a musician who wasn’t completely satisfied and wasn’t going to stop until she was.
Down by the Riverside in the van on our way back home from Maine, October 2025
We’ve lost a legend. Not just Y@H, but also the Northampton Community Music School, where she was a teacher, the Ujima Singers, who she directed at NCMC, and StompBoxTrio, the three-person band she was the vocalist of. We send our loving condolences to everyone else who knew her or performed with her over the years.
We all feel so lucky for the time we got to spend with Evelyn – though we all wish we could’ve had more time with her. We will miss her so much.
With all our love and respect, dearest Evelyn. May your light shine forever.
Evelyn Harris singing a duet with John Rinehart in 10-Alarm Fire: We Won't Shut Up, November 2025