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There are now substantiated medical reasons for why we have a performance high or feeling of euphoria following a barbershop concert or singing session. It‘s not just emotional. Some of it is now believed to be chemical, and related to the singer’s state of mind. A recently published study by researchers from the University of California at Irvine, showed that a protein our immune system uses to fight disease, called Immunoglobulin A, increased by 150 percent during rehearsals of choirs they were monitoring; and 240 percent during the group’s performances. The more passionate you feel while singing, the greater the effect, said education professor Robert Beck, co-author of the study, along with Thomas Cesario, dean of UC-lrvine’s College of Medicine. (the study was published in the scientific journal "Music Perception". The researchers used volunteers from the 160-member Pacific Chorale to obtain saliva samples on cotton swabs to calculate the presence of Immunoglobulin A before and after singing. In a published account of the study in the Boston Globe, the scientists theorized that the difference in the higher levels of the disease-fighting proteins between a rehearsal and a performance might have resulted from the singers’ thrill of the performance itself. (Source:Carl Douglas Rogers, from the Harmo-ssourian July 31,2001, North Shore Harmony Rag, April 2002)
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