Songs By Heart To Bring Music To Memory Care Centers In The Capital Region

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Describing what it calls the first opera company in the nation to provide a certain type of therapeutic memory care to its local community, Opera Saratoga is offering an interactive music program for residents in memory care centers in the Capital Region. 

The company has recently hired two singers and two pianists for their Songs by Heart program. Musicians are trained in therapeutic techniques such as mirroring, making direct eye contact, swaying to the beat, and holding hands with residents throughout the program. Singers encourage residents to join in with singing, clapping, and moving, as well as to engage in conversation centered around the musical selections. 

Opera Saratoga plans to start serving facilities in a seven-county service area, from south of Albany and north up to Lake George. 

Music is pulled from popular music from the 1920’s – 1950’s and includes familiar songs like ‘Take me out to the ball game’, ‘Home on the range’, ‘Edelweiss’, and many other popular, folk, and patriotic songs familiar to residents. 

Each of Opera Saratoga Songs by Heart artists have been trained by Songs by Heart’s artistic administrator, Emily Becker, and board-certified Music Therapist, Jenny Cook. Becker and Cook have trained about 150 musicians across the county. This is the only Songs by Heart program in New York State.

For more information about the new initiative or to sign up for a demo session at a specific Memory Care center, contact Opera Saratoga’s Senior Program Manager of Education and Community Outreach, Melissa Howe, at 518-584-6018 or mhowe@operasaratoga.org.