The South Shore Conservatory is holding a full-day program called “Music and the Brain Symposium” to teach people of music’s powerful effect on the brain.
THE PATRIOT LEDGER – Country superstar Glen Campbell’s battle against Alzheimer’s was famously detailed in the 2014 documentary film “I’ll Be Me,” an intimate look at how he and his family coped with the neurodegenerative illness.
Campbell died in 2017, but his daughter, Ashley Campbell, continues the fight against Alzheimer’s. She has advocated before Congress for more research on the disease and will also talk about her family’s experience with Alzheimer’s at a public symposium about how music affects the brain on March 28 in Hanover.
The seminar, “Music and the Brain Symposium,” is organized by South Shore Conservatory and one goal is to promote the healing power of music. “Music is the only thing that will re-path in our brain when our brains shut down for one reason or another,” said Music Therapist and South Shore Conservatory Director of Creative Arts Therapies Eve Montague. “Whether it’s injury or disease, music is the only thing that opens up other avenues.”
With the disappearance of music programs from our schools, Montague said, it’s more important than ever that people understand music’s great rehabilitative power. The two-part program on March 28 will feature speeches, opportunities to play and listen to music, discussions and other activities. The morning session will focus on how music impacts the developing brains of children, while the afternoon will center on how music and arts-based interventions invigorate the aging brain.
Montague said the conservatory chose to focus on these two groups because they are not only some of the most vulnerable, but are also able to reap out-sized benefits from engaging in music and the arts. She said music therapy can be of particular value to children with autism or who are otherwise aneurotypical in aiding in learning and socializing. For older adults, music can help people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and dementia retain and regain learning, as well as create a sense of community and socialize, she said.
“We really think that music is the great equalizer,” she said. “So we want to show the value of music at pretty much at any age, but certainly in the developing brain and why it’s so important to adults who are going through changes in their brain and in their life journey.”
One of the symposium’s morning panelists, Lauren Pimpare, a conservatory board member, has seen music’s therapeutic power first-hand at the school. She said her son, who is now 8 years old, suffered a traumatic brain injury when he was born and now goes to weekly music therapy sessions with Montague.
“We have found that through music he is able to find his voice,” she said. “He’s nonverbal, so finding his voice is also finding his movement, being able to feel something through music that he can interact with another person.”
Pimpare said she believes society often has trouble interacting with people who communicate or learn differently from the norm, but that music allows us to overcome those barriers. When her son was younger, she said, aunts and uncles would not know how to hold him or be with him, but that music helped get around that.
“It’s the common language and it enables his uncle to play the guitar with him,” she said. “Music just opens up this whole world of communication and interaction in a way that nothing else does.”
The “Rhinestone Cowboy’s” daughter is the symposium’s keynote speaker and will speak from a place of experience. She helped care for her father when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Glen Campbell kept touring after being diagnosed, but after a time, the disease became less manageable, Montague said. So Ashley, an accomplished country musician, played with her father on stage, and they toured together until 2017 when he died at age 81. Glen even wrote a song about dealing with Alzheimer’s called “I’m Not Gonna Miss You,” which earned an Oscar nomination for best original song after it was featured on the documentary.
“She witnessed what music could do for him when he was most confused and when he couldn’t remember what was what and where he was and who was who,” Montague said. “He could still sing his songs with her. And so they had this bond on stage that I think was such a gift for both of them.”
By Susannah Sudborough
South Shore Conservatory presents Music and the Brain Symposium in partnership with South Shore Health, South Shore YMCA, NVNA and Hospice, and the MA/NH chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. The Symposium offers a mix of experiential and informational learning on how music impacts both the developing brain and the aging brain, on Saturday, March 28, at Laura’s Center for the Arts, 97 Mill Street in Hanover. Singer/songwriter Ashley Campbell, who worked alongside her father, country music legend Glen Campbell, during his journey with Alzheimer’s, is the afternoon keynote speaker.
Complete information about the Symposium including half-day and full-day registration is available at sscmusic.org/musicandthebrain. Financial assistance is available, contact Eve Montague at e.montague@sscmusic.org for more information.
