Seniors in Concert With Children - Brief Article

Nursing Homes, Oct, 2001 by Sandra Hoban

Whether watching with the eyes of experience or the eyes of innocence, the 32 members of the Voice of Ages choir, ranging in age from 8 to 92, anticipate the music director's downbeat. Suddenly the years melt away and the seniors from three of NewCourtland's six facilities and the children of Germantown's Settlement Music School in Philadelphia become an ageless voice in song.

NewCourtland, a subsidiary of the Presbyterian Foundation for Philadelphia, has taken inner-city nursing homes, both broken and broke, and put them on their feet clinically, financially and operationally. So says Gail Kass, president and CEO of NewCourtland and the Foundation: "Because assisted living and other levels of care are largely unavailable to the urban poor, these people live in nursing homes for a long time. NewCourtland's mission isn't to warehouse, but rather to create an environment where elders can function at their highest levels and stay connected to the outside world."

NewCourtland developed their program--Comfort&Joy--to keep elders actively involved with their surrounding communities. "At the outset, the projects were art and photography oriented," says Pam Mammarella, Comfort & Joy program director. Knowing, however, how powerful music can be to keep seniors connected, she contacted the Settlement Music School's Germantown branch, which is conveniently located near three NewCourtland facilities. "We knew that music has the power to make people come alive, and a choir made up of our residents and young children seemed the perfect idea. Our residents would benefit from being with the children, and the children would gain new experiences, as well."

For the children, not all of the training was in music. NewCourtland provided an orientation program to help them be comfortable around the seniors. The students also were taken through exercises to help them understand some of the sensory difficulties that afflict seniors. For example, the children held plastic wrap over their eyes to simulate decreased visual acuity; they stuffed their ears with cotton to muffle sound. As a result of these sensory adaptations, according to Kass, the students learned that it is important to speak clearly and enunciate rather than to shout at an elderly person.

Likewise, because many of the residents might not have been around children for a while, NewCourtland offered them advice on how to interact with the youngsters, reminding them of the energy and exuberance of youth. After each practice, staff met with the residents to make sure that everything went smoothly.

All program expenses, including the extra staffing required to help with the residents' transfer to the rehearsal site, are covered by NewCourtland. The organization absorbs the costs because the program does so much to enrich the lives of its participants. "We promote our programs to inform the public because we feel compelled to counteract the total blanket of negativity the public perceives about the nursing home experience," says Kass, explaining that "we want elders to know that if they go to the right nursing home, there is a whole, rich life still waiting to be lived."

The success of that mission is embodied in sisters Jessie and Helen Harper, residents at NewCourtland's Germantown Home facility. Helen adores the children and credits them with being "so nice to us and they have such beautiful voices." Teasingly, her sister Jessie jokes, "The children are surprised that we can sing. The audience is surprised, too, because our lungs are not as good as they once were but our teacher, Julia Zavadsky, brings the music out of us."

When the children perform separately, they focus on a library of semiclassical music for children's voices, while the musical preferences of the senior choir run from folk songs to spirituals and the songs popular during their youth. "At first, we tried to have the seniors sing semiclassical melodies, but they really didn't relate to them. Once they began to sing church music, they came alive," program director Mammarella says. When the children and seniors sing together, they practice a mixture of spirituals, show tunes and standards.

In June, after months of practice, the Voices of Ages choir gave a public concert at the International House of Philadelphia on the campus of The University of Pennsylvania. Jessie Harper stresses, "Our teacher likes us to have a lot of expression on our faces; we let everyone know that we enjoy what we're doing." And that's just what these entertainers-young and old-did when they performed their show-stopping song, "It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing."

After the Voices of Ages choir took their final bows that evening before an admiring and appreciative audience, the seniors and the children said goodbye to each other for the summer, looking forward to their autumn reunion when they will be back in the practice halls, enjoying the music and each other. NH