“Keep playing music; it keeps you sharp and young! I sang those songs at your age!"
“Keep playing music; it keeps you sharp and young! I sang those songs at your age!"
Harmonies for the Elderly was founded in 2010 by Deepa Rajan when she was at Westwood High School in Austin, TX. While in Austin the group performed at over 60 nursing homes. Deepa has graduated from Vanderbilt University, where she majored in Neuroscience and Music. She is currently an MD/PhD student at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She has passed the torch of the Austin Chapter to Keshav Srinivasan (Northwestern '26) and Kavya Srinivasan (UWaterloo '26).
Sign-ups are open for high school students in the Greater Austin area for the fall semester of 2019. Fill in the contact from or you can also e-mail us at harmoniesatx@gmail.com. We are looking for string players, pianists, guitarists, flautists and singers!
We plan to have performances twice a month - once in NW Austin and once in South Austin. You can participate at either or both! The point is to have fun making beautiful music for very appreciative audiences.
Our founder, Deepa Rajan, has carefully compiled music designed for this audience. We also encourage our musicians to perform short solos or duets in their personal repertoire, time permitting.
Several scientific studies have been conducted to establish a link between musical exposure and the health of an elderly impaired person. Music therapy and musical tasks in general help nursing home residents improve their motor skills and cognitive abilities. We have personally witnessed dramatic positive changes in the behavior of the nursing home residents we perform for. For example, one resident who could not remember our names spontaneously recalled all of the lyrics to “Edelweiss”. Another person suddenly remembered her father’s quartet from the 1940s. Music evokes childhood memories in a way that no other medium can. There are also physical benefits to our audiences. For example, one woman who always had trouble standing, jumped to her feet to clap for us after a performance at Gracy Woods 1 Nursing Center.
There are several organizations across the world that play music at nursing homes, but only a select few of them tailor programs specifically designed to improve the memories of Alzheimer’s patients and the motor skills of other impaired nursing home residents. We choose songs from the childhoods of our audiences and include a wide variety of genres to encourage the maximum audience participation. Increasing the involvement of the nursing home residents in our music (by, for example, performing specially conducted sing-alongs) improves their states of awareness and their overall sense of well-being. We witness dramatically positive changes in the demeanors of the nursing home concerts at the conclusion of each of our concerts. We make interaction an essential component of every musical experience.
Contact us! You may be able to start your own chapter where you are!
Harmonies for the Elderly has given more than 60 performances at memory cary facilities.
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