By Debbie Gardner
“During COVID [-19] when I was upset, I would get up in the middle of the night and play [my piano],” Jeannie Udas, a lifelong music lover and piano student in the Community Music School of Springfield’s Creative Aging program, told Prime about her early-pandemic coping mechanism. “I would close the door so I wouldn’t disturb my husband.
“At this time in life, my doctor said you should be doing what you love, what makes you happy,” Udas added.
Such is the power of music – to comfort, to inspire, to bring joy. Music connects us across generations, cultures, political affiliations, even geography. From the lullaby that you sing to your grandchild – because your mother sang it to you – to the songs that defined your youth, first love, special life events, even final goodbyes, music seems intertwined with so much of our lives.
But does music have the power to affect how well we age? It’s a question that’s being explored by college professors and people developing programs to improve the quality of life for elders.
In a quest to find out how important music is to successful aging, Prime spoke to University of Wisconsin professor Dr. Dean VonDras, co-author of a new book, “Music, Wellness and Aging: Defining. Directing and Celebrating Life,” Liz Simmons, director of the Community Music School of Springfield’s Creative Aging Program and Bob Cilman, director of Northampton’s famed Young@Heart chorus.
What we discovered may just have you dusting off that long-abandoned instrument, re-joining the church choir or fully embracing that singing you do in the shower.
“What we hoped to do [was] provide an all-involved overview, a book that would look at old age, aging and later life in a very optimistic way,” VonDras told Prime of “Music, Wellness and Aging,” the book he co-authored with fellow psychology professor Scott F. Madey.
The fact that Madey had recently retired from his professorship – and in the process rediscovered his passion for playing in a band – was a major factor in the decision to examine aging through the lens of music, VonDras added.
“In his new life – [Madey] was a college professor as I am – he now has 50 gigs a year,” VonDras quipped. “Music involvement can be defining.”
The pair started their exploration of music’s implications for quality of life as we age with a simple question: “If music is something people enjoy so much, how does that happen?” That led to an examination of why we find personal significance in a song we hear, and how, even with brain changes brought on by normal aging, music still seems to influence mood, brain health and well-being.
Part scholarly text, part anecdotal observation, “Music, Wellness and Aging” combines observations about the positive effects of music on such issues as the instances of depression among nursing home residents and the pain levels of people recovering from surgery and strokes with the real-world effects of performing from elder musicians and from elders who relate music to their culture and younger selves.
Like the older man in a town band in Pennsylvania that VonDras talks about in the book. He may have needed assistance to find his chair, and a reminder to pick up his instrument after a concert, but he could still play every note of the songs.
“Even though there were some cognitive changes, he was still able to perform,” VonDras said. “He could still be involved in the social experience of the band, and the enjoyment of playing music,” adding richness and purpose to his life.
In another example, VonDras and Madey looked at the experience of a Canadian Indigenous woman, and how remembering the songs of her childhood native community “connected her to that community in an almost spiritual way.”
“Music opens the door to the spiritual,” VonDras noted. “It opens the door for us to explore our own state of living [and] how we think about ourselves.”
And VonDras highlighted how the positive effect of music on aging and wellness are exemplified by Northampton’s Young@Heart chorus, and the 2007 documentary that showcased their music and spirit.
“We reference [Young@Heart] in the book,” VonDras said. “In their movie, certainly they are involved in music, but they also talk about their life, you can see how much music is a directing force … folks are still rehearsing up to the point they go into the hospital” and many times, are not coming home again. “They certainly are a group that suggest we look at aging in a different way,” VonDras said.
Bob Cilman, the longtime director of Young@Heart explained how he believes music helps his chorus members age well in this way to Prime:
“Young@Heart chooses to give singers songs they aren’t familiar with because learning something new as opposed to singing something that resides within your memory is incredibly useful in keeping your brain active. I think audiences love to hear the interpretations of songs they know sung differently by people who didn’t necessarily grow up with the music. It’s not immediately obvious to an audience that this is also extremely beneficial for healthful aging. Beyond the brain there are the benefits to the rest of the body to have to move and use your voice. I believe it adds years to a life. I’m not a scientist so I don’t have empirical data on that, but it makes perfect sense,“ Cilman said.
You don’t have to join the famed Young@Heart chorus in Northampton to reap the benefits of taking part in playing and performing music. There’s a program much closer for those who live in the greater Springfield area.
The Community Music School of Springfield (CMS), located at 127 State St. in Springfield, has a program called the Tim Cotz Creative Aging Initiative that offers music lessons, a choral experience, and even a band experience, for would-be and getting-back-to-being musicians 55 years of age and older.
“We started it three years ago,” Liz Simmons, creative aging program manager at the Community Music School told Prime. “[Executive Director] Eileen McCaffery found out about this national program and thought, ‘this is a population that we’re not necessarily serving yet that we could.’”
The initiative was named after Cotz, a former CMS board member and strong proponent of music education for older adults, who died of ALS in 2017. The program was initiated in 2018.
Simmons explained the mission of Creative Aging is to connect “the 55-plus community with music instruction to improve their lives – elevating mood, improving cognitive function and increasing social engagement. In so doing, Creative Aging works to change the conceptions about older adults in the broader community.”
“What we have is sort-of a two-pronged approach; one is that we go into retirement communities throughout the greater Springfield area and bring music classes to them, and the other is that we host creative aging classes at the school.
“[Currently] we have a chorus up at Mason-Wright [in Springfield], a chorus at Glenmeadow [in Longmeadow] and drumming at East Village Place [in East Longmeadow]. Some of the others are on hiatus at the moment,” Simmons said.
In January, Simmons said CMS is launching another outreach program, offering ukulele lessons at the Jewish Community Center of Springfield. The times and cost had not been finalized by press time.
At the school’s downtown Springfield campus, the on-site Creative Aging chorus meets Monday evenings from 6 to 7:30 p.m. “We just [re]started and are looking for new members,” Simmons said. There’s also a concert band – called the StillCan Band – that meets Wednesday afternoons from 2 to 3 p.m.
The cost to join either group is $300 a year – about $10 a week, said Simmons.
The music school has become a haven for West Springfield resident Jeanne Udas. A former musician – she played piano and sang in school choruses as a child – Udas has returned to music in her later years as a member of the chorus, the piano accompaniment for the StilllCan Band and has been taking private piano lessons at the school to sharpen up her former skill.
“The school has been a joy for me, I was involved there when my kids were young, and now I’m back,” the retired schoolteacher shared. “With the awful COVID [-19] it was wonderful to have that connection… I did my private lessons on Zoom, and we did the StillCan Band on Zoom.”
Beyond the camaraderie of performing with others, Udas said she’s seen benefits from her re-involvement with music, particularly the piano lessons.
“I like that I’m increasing my skills. It’s making my mind think my level has gone up and I love the challenge of new music,” Udas said, adding that her experience with the StillCan Band is reinforcing that brain boost. “[It] pushes you to do more, we need a challenge as we get older.”
And she can’t say enough about the Community Music School’s Creative Aging Program.
“They tailor things for you,” Udas said. “They’re very willing to help you musically wherever you want to go. It’s not a one size fits all type of thing.”
Editor’s Note: VonDras and Madey curated a YouTube Listening Channel of music clips to accompany their book, but it is great to listen to on its own! Find it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfWPnes1XPw
Their book, “Music Wellness and Aging: Defining, Directing and Celebrating Life,” is available at Amazon and through major bookstores.
For more information on the Creative Aging Project at the Community Music School of Springfield, call (413) 732-8428 or visit https://www.communitymusicschool.com/
