Tulsa Opera Partners With 'Songs By Heart' To Help Those Living With Alzheimer's

71,000 people in Oklahoma are living with Alzheimer’s, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

In 2022, The Tulsa Opera partnered with a program called Songs By Heart that works to bring live, interactive, music therapy to the memory care community. Dani Keil is the Tulsa Opera’s Director of Community Engagement and she joined us on the Arca Continental Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages Porch to talk about how the program has helped so many.

"The program was started by an opera singer, Nancy Gustafson, who lives in Chicago, and her mother has Alzheimer's," Keil explained. "One visit to her mother, she was trying to connect, and the best way to do it was through singing Christmas carols together. And that sparked the idea for Nancy that she had to share this with more Alzheimer's patients."

Specialized Training for Singers

The Tulsa Opera's singers have received specialized training to effectively engage with Alzheimer's patients through music.

"We've received training from a music therapist with the Songs by Heart Foundation, as well as additional training on working with Alzheimer's patients, communication and things like that, from the Oklahoma chapter of the Alzheimer's Association," Keil said. "So our singers are very skilled at leading these sing-alongs, connecting with the residents and communities we go into, and really bringing the spirit out of them through participation in the music."

The Power of Music for Alzheimer's Patients

Music has a profound impact on the brains of those living with Alzheimer's and dementia, as it engages multiple cognitive functions.

"Music is powerful in anyone's brain because we're processing it throughout our brain," Keil explained. "So of course, our hearing processors are working as well as parts of our brain that are anticipating things. So how is this harmony going to resolve? When you're watching a music program, you're visually engaged as well, and then there are emotions and memories linked to music. So as all of these parts of our brain are firing, the Alzheimer's and dementia brains seem to like wake up."

The Tulsa Opera's program has led to some truly remarkable moments, where patients who have lost the ability to speak can suddenly start singing.

"Some of the most dramatic are when patients whose are progressed so far in the disease, they're no longer verbal, begin singing," Keil shared. "And we know that that's happened when the nurses start filming and telling us they're going to send it home to the families, and it's so exciting, we get to share those moments."

Bringing the Community Together

The Tulsa Opera's Songs by Heart program is accessible to the community, with weekly sessions held at the Tulsa Opera offices every Thursday at 2 PM.

"We're so lucky to have grant funding that helps us do both. We are in facilities. We go to about a dozen on a monthly basis, or sometimes twice a month. And then weekly, we hold sessions that are free and open to the community at the Tulsa Opera offices," Keil said.

The Tulsa Opera welcomes everyone, regardless of their singing abilities, to join in the joyful experience.

"If anyone in your life is impacted with Alzheimer's or dementia and your caretaker, please come join us on Thursdays," Keil encouraged. "We also are a nonprofit, so we do rely on donations and grant funding to support us. But I am not a singer myself. I like to say I'm the resident Dancer of the program, but it becomes so fun. It doesn't matter how you sing. We're all swept up in it. It's songs we know, and you can't help but singing and sharing together."

Learn even more at:

https://www.facebook.com/TulsaOpera

https://tulsaopera.com/songs-by-heart/