Music Moves

In settings such as skilled nursing and assisted living facilities, residents usually don’t have the ability to attend concerts and recitals. In addition, residents often do not have much opportunity to interact with the younger generation. Studies reveal that a significant percentage of seniors in residential care, experience depression, memory loss, decreased cognitive skills, and social isolation. Many studies document the benefits of music, especially for the elderly, including improved mood, increased social interaction, and improved memory and cognition. Many young people don’t typically interact with the elderly, especially in these settings. In addition, young musicians, singers, and dancers don’t have many venues to perform and polish their performance skills with a real audience on a regular basis. I decided to bring these two populations together and formed the “Music Moves” club at my high school. It has become very successful and I have found that there is a greater demand than we can meet with our monthly performances. I have also identified equipment that we need to make our performances better received by this hearing impaired population and more interactive with the audiences.