Celebrating Joy With Encore Creativity

*The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.

Welcome to the answers for elders radio show. meet the trusted experts who will give you straight answers and will help guide you on the path of later life care. Now here’s your host, founder, caregiver and CEO, Susanne Newman, and welcome back everyone, to answers for elder’s radio network. And we are talking about joy all this hour and for those of you that are listening to the program today, I hope you’ll just sit back and think about some happy times in your life when you felt surrounded by a community. And one of the things that’s really beneficial and why I really wanted to have on was because I have a personal story and Joshua, we talked a little bit about, you know, in our first part of the hour, about all the things that does. And one of the things that crossed my mind is when I was singing with choir of the sound Um, I lost my dad and it was kind of a sudden situation. He was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer and it was just like he had days to live. It was that overwhelming and I remember coming back and I normally, you know, was so much of a presence in my choir and certainly, you know with my big mouth, and I was very much involved, but I just withdrew because I was in so much grief and I didn’t know how to handle it. And you know, the sense of community. I will always feel grateful to my choir because what they did was the conductor called me after I had missed a couple of rehearsals and he said to me, Suzanne, I said, there’s just no way I can. I was telling him I can’t memorize, I can’t do anything, I’m dealing with the loss of my dad and it’s just I can’t handle it right now. And what he said is the purpose of our quiet or is not to memorize things. Yes, we memorize things for performance, but the purpose of our choir is about community and it’s about putting our arms around each other and supporting one another, and this is where you need to be. And he talked me into coming back and it’s making it’s making me emotional because I remember how alone I felt when I lost my father, my father, and yet I had this amazing group that embraced me and held me up. and Um, you know, I think about so many of our seniors that may be grieving someone, whether they lost someone during the pandemic, whether they are, you know, lost friends or loved ones, or, you know, they’re dealing with a transition. Maybe they let go of their home and they’re now into senior living, things like that. There is so much grief that happens and I I am like, I’m interested if my story, Joshua, may be similar. Do you have stories like that in your organization? Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for sharing your own personal story, Susanne. I know that is extremely meaningful to you and we hear those stories every single day and I love how you opened this segment with. Today we’re talking about joy, because that is what I see on the faces of our singers and there’s something powerful about music, about when you walk into that space, whether it be over zoom if you’re not ready to come back yet, or you’re in the room with other singers, there’s there’s something about being being a part of something that’s bigger than yourself, right and being a part of that community. Like you shared, that it’s really hard to be thinking about other things when you’re thinking about and singing music, and so music kind of transports you to another place and it kind of you kind of leave those things that might be hurting you, or things that you might be grieving, or things that might be causing you stress or anxiety or traveling. You kind of leave those things at the door for ninety minutes and you get to experience the joy and the power of singing with others and there’s something where there’s just not a lot of space for her. Now. Sometimes we use music to help express things that we’re going through as well, but there’s just something so powerful about music, like you shared. We hear those every single day. I have to tell a story that I just heard yesterday, Suzanne, that just absolutely I just can’t stop thinking about it. About I had a singer who told me, you know, that their lung cancer survivor and that the when they were diagnosed ten years ago, their doctors said the best thing you can do, because she had one lung removed and she had to learn how to, you know, breathe properly with only one lung. They, the doctor, said you need to go and sing. That’s the best for for for lungs. And so she went and she found encore and she joined encore just so she could exercise her lung and she said, I had no idea what I would find when I came to encore. But not only do I love encore because I get to sing to me a parting, but it’s literally the breath that I breathe. I thought, wow, wow, we’re doing something big here. Well, you are, and I think too, you know, having been classically trained as a voice major, Um, you know, I know the power of breath and learning about health and how how important are breathing is to our sustenance for being healthy, and there’s so much to do in the fact of exercising that muscle in your life, you know, and I remember my voice teacher, would you know, put his fist right up in my diaphragm when it was first, you know, learning, because it was learning to use those muscles, those stomach muscles, to really project your voice out. And we tend to talk from our throat and so we’re not getting in to all of the capacity that we have for breath were we sing, and I think that’s one of the things that’s that’s so amazing about, you know, the the aspects of health, aspects, excuse me, of doing solve. Yeah, there’s so many benefits. Like you just said, physically, but mentally and socially and physiologically, all of those things. There’s so many benefits to it that keep older does sharp and connected and engaged and creative. And you know, there’s there’s great power in that. Yeah, and not to mention when I sit there and I think about there’s a lot of seniors right now that are either downsizing, letting go of a big house. Um, all of a sudden they have all this time on their hands. You know, they sit and you know, you can only watch so many episodes of, you know, Rockford files or like that. It’s basically, you know, learning to find, discover something that you can celebrate. And you know, for many people they’re need to know one another. They might have some shyness, they might have some sense of you know, I’m not. I don’t really know how to fit into a new group of people. The beauty of music is it’s a leveler. Everybody comes in there at the same, you know, point and they’re sharing something together and that’s how relationships in my opinion, is having that commonality and that camaraderie that people experience together. And I know for me, Um, I will never forget some of the experiences that I had of singing, you know, in my choir. I remember we did a concert in Mini Hall in in that the U dub which was just amazing. We did another concert in Benar Royal Hall and you know, to think about those experiences, I never would have thought that I would have had those opportunities, but that’s the beauty of coming together like that. And of course, am I any sort of expert? Heck no, but I certainly Um enjoyed it. So that was so great. So, Joshua, when you’re working with the senior that you know maybe is going through some special transitions or things like that, have you guys found that you’ve found some resources within your organization? You have ways to bring people into the circle. Yeah, absolutely. Not only have we built partnerships and relationships and have those resources, but I think some of the best resources are our singers. Have found our each other. You know, they’re able to lean on people who have gone through those different stages of life. I’ve heard our seniors share stories about finding friendships that have helped them through certain stages or or they’ve been able to link up with someone who was going through that same journey. And so I think there’s kind of the resources that might educate or support, but there’s also just that relational resources that our singers have found among among their own groups. Right, right, and certainly Um with the pandemic, giving how it is, how have you found Um, your world, to be different since covid? Yeah, I mean we have had to rethink everything, the way that we do. Every Performing Arts Organization has, because of the way covid transmits. Choral singing has been one of the most affected, and so whether it’s requiring vaccines and boosters or wearing certain types of masks, you know, keeping distance, you know, we’ve had to reimagine the way that we do collective choral singing. But we’re finding a way. We truly are, and one of the things that I’ll say about encore creativity is that we leverage technology to be able to create ncore university, and I don’t think we would have ever done that. Nor would a lot of arts organizations really embrace technology and reaching more people through zoom. I mean encore creativity didn’t even know what zoom was. Yeah, exactly. So I think there have been some been the fits, you know, you hate to think of it that way, like how does anything good come out of a pandemic? But I would say that they’re absolutely has been. Yeah, yeah, and you know, I do think so too. I think we’ve learned to embrace more technology as an older adult population, but I think even more so, I think we’re appreciating the special moments that we’ve had to be without. I think there’s much more of an ability to Um, you know, want to reach out and connect with people, but we maybe just took for granted. Um. And the other thing is is, I think I’m finding at least, that people are a little bit more introspective about their personal relationships. Who they you know, who they connect with and with all the negative negativity going on in the world, talk about having something that’s positive is so vital to our mental health, whether we suffer from any mental health issues at all, there’s that amazing opportunity to just disconnect for ninety minutes and celebrate the good in life, and that’s yeah, Susanne, you said that so perfectly and I’ll just mentioned too, as we’re talking about coming up, you know, living through this pandemic. I believe, being a leader in the arts field, that there’s a greater appreciation now for arts and creativity, because when we had nothing else and we were isolating our homes, we turned to books and music and movies and writing, you know, we turn to all of those, the different forms of arts, to help us get through that. I can’t imagine going through that time without any of the forms of art. And so I think people are coming back to society and realizing that, like, yes, going to my favorite restaurant or going over here to, you know, play my video game, whatever it may be. But in those moments we we really turned to the arts and I think we’ll continue to have a great appreciation for us. So, Joshua, if someone wants to get involved, how do we reach you? Yes, so, go to encore creativity org. That is our website. It is a one stop shop, as I said. Do you want to learn about all of our programs, what communities were currently in and how you can get involved and come sing with us, come perform with us? Well, we can’t wait and I just might have to be convinced to join you guys. So you never know that schedule. I go, oh my gosh, but you know, it’s like we’re talking about it. It’s really exciting. So, Joshua, thank you for being with us. I know you’re so busy with your schedule and we’re going to have a special treat because the second half of this hour we’re going to be speaking with our Seattle conductor, the amazing Dr Navlei Lurch and Natalie. I am so excited to talk about our local program and Dr Navalie and I will be right back right after this. We it answers for elders. Thank you for listening. Did you know that you can discover hundreds of podcasts in our library on senior care? So visit our website discover our decision guides. That will help you also navigate decision making. Find us at answers for elders. DOTOR H M HM