Sentimental Journey Singers performing at Insight's Legacy Breakfast.

Singing in Choir Boosts Engagement

Encore Creativity for Older Adults is the nation’s largest choral organization with 42 ensembles in 7 states and the District of Columbia, serving almost 1300 singers. Encore offers several different kinds of singing experiences. Our Encore Chorales learn and perform a variety of music from The Great American Songbook, traditional pieces, spirituals and more. Our Encore ROCKS groups sing pop and rock music from different decades including today.

Our Arts for Life programming offers music experiences for those with cognitive change. Sentimental Journey Singers (SJS) is a choir for singers with early- to mid-stage cognitive change and their care partners. We are grateful for the support and partnership of Insight Memory Care who hosts two of our Sentimental Journey Singers groups. One at the Fairfax campus on Wednesdays 10-11:30am in the Reconnections Building and one at the Loudoun campus on Thursdays 10-11:30am.

Our SJS singers participate in singing in three-part harmony a variety of songs both ones that may be familiar to them and also learning new songs. In addition to preparing our concert repertoire, the group builds community through movement activities and music games. It is a great opportunity for the singer and care partner to engage in an activity together.

One care partner shared this:

With my mom’s Alzheimer’s Disease, something that had remained constant is her love and talent in music. She never sang in a group setting before, but she can sing the words of any song from the 60’s…she has always sung melody, and had never sung harmony before, so I didn’t know how well she would do learning the alto part, but she amazed me.

Many of our care partners comment on how engaged their loved ones are both during and after our rehearsals. Many are able to converse more easily and maintain eye contact for longer periods of time following our sessions. There is a vast amount research that supports the importance of music and art experiences as we age and especially for those with cognitive change.

Sentimental Journey Singers is a FREE program for Insight participants and care partners to participate in. Come sing, laugh, and play with us at Insight! We begin our fall semester September 6th at Fairfax and September 7th at Loudoun. For more information visit https://encorecreativity.org/arts-for-life/. We hope you can join us this fall!

Author
Dr. Mary Ann East, Director of Arts for Life, Encore Creativity for Older Adults