Sing For Your Seniors brings the power of music to seniors battling loneliness. Hundreds of performers volunteer their time to sing in assisted living facilities, care centers, hospitals, and more. Sing For Your Seniors creates unique opportunities for inter-generational connection and shares the joy of performing with our vulnerable populations. Learn more here!
What inspired you to start Sing For Your Seniors?
I grew up very close with my grandparents and great grandmother and was always performing for them as a child. When my great grandmother moved into assisted living, I would visit her and perform a song, sometimes even bringing my theater friends along to sing for her as well. During those visits, the other residents would come out of their rooms to hear the music. When I moved to New York to pursue musical theater, I missed that connection to the elderly and to the storytelling aspect of music. I started volunteering at a senior center and sang for them once a week and eventually brought in other artists to perform. Sing For Your Seniors built itself from that community of performers and elderly audiences. I eventually went through the steps of becoming a nonprofit, and now we’ve expanded into areas across New York.
Can you tell me about your programs and where you operate?
We work with a variety of senior centers and assisted living facilities around New York. We go to each place about once a month and sometimes do one-off sessions for special celebrations. In locations that don’t have instruments, we fundraise to purchase refurbished pianos and keyboards to perform with. We also partner with Broadway shows and bring cast members to perform songs from their musicals or from their own repertoire. It’s really special for our seniors, who wouldn’t have the means or capabilities to see a Broadway show otherwise. The arts are a nurturing resource for people and serve as a tool for connecting with others.
What kind of impact does music have on the seniors you work with?
We want everyone to feel that this experience is something special and that they are all wanted there. Every community has different needs. With memory care, which is our most impactful space, we don’t use microphones because it can be disorienting. We approach our tone with more calmness, and we choose songs from an era that the audiences relate to. When we sing, we move about the space slowly and make eye contact many times with the audience. At senior centers, sometimes it turns into a party. People are dancing, moving around, singing, and having fun. Some groups are really into musical theater, so it turns into a challenge for our singers to try to stump them with music they haven’t heard before. Every performance is electric, joyful, and an incredible thing to be part of.
What is the best part of your job?
We are celebrating 20 years as a nonprofit this year and it’s been a really beautiful experience. Our artists walk away being reminded of why they wanted to do this in the first place, and it’s so meaningful for the audience. I founded the organization, worked boots on the ground, and eventually transitioned into more of an administrative role. I ended up moving to California and recently moved my mother into assisted living, and it’s been really full-circle for me to now be performing at her facility. I’m returning to our core mission and it’s given me so much joy to be back with the seniors again.
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