Our very first Learning Lab series – ever! – launched in spring 2017. It was an eight-week series in Beginning Ukulele, Choral Arts and Percussive Arts led by Musician Partners Todd Elgin and Anita Moffitt (ukes), Geno Haffner (choral), and Program Director Matt Bridges (percussion). Our first Community Partner in this endeavor, the Downtown Nashville Public Library, provided classroom spaces for the one-hour weekly sessions as well as their beautiful auditorium and adjoining banquet room for a final recital and reception.

KHS America graciously donated professional-quality Lanikai Ukes and Remo Drums offered a deep discount to purchase their Tubano Drums.  Music for Seniors loaned these instruments to the students to ensure that purchasing an instrument was not a barrier to participating. In addition, part of the recital celebration included the opportunity for three lucky students with perfect series attendance to enter a drawing to win a their own beautiful new Lanikai Uke, a Remo Tubano Drum or two tickets to a performance by Nashville Community Choir.

In 2018 and 2019, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Vanderbilt partnered with us to offer Ukulele and Harmonica Learning Labs in classrooms at Scarritt Bennett Center, another dedicated Community Partner. Grammy-winning harmonica virtuoso Charlie McCoy (now a Music for Seniors Board Member) kicked off our first-ever Harmonica Learning Lab led by Teaching Artist Bronson Herrmuth with harmonicas generously gifted to all participants by KHS America. We brought Musician Partner Donna Frost on board as a third Ukulele Teaching Artist to lead additional series in classrooms offered by Community Partners Rutland Place and Victory Baptist Church in Mt. Juliet and the Bellevue Branch of the Nashville Public Library.

After shifting to virtual Guitar and Ukulele Learning Labs during 2020-21 due to the Covid pandemic, we were thrilled to resume in-person classes this spring, as were our eager students! We rebooted with an Intermediate Ukulele Learning Lab and two brand-new Songwriting Learning Labs.

Spotlight on Connye Florance: Teaching Artist, Musician Partner and Concert Performer

Connye Florance has been a popular featured artist in our FREE Daytime Concert Series for years. She and her husband, Kevin Madill, also facilitate Outreach programs with groups across the area.  This spring, she introduced a Beginning Songwriting series at Howard Congregational Church and followed up with an Intermediate series at Scarritt Bennett Center this summer. Both of these Songwriting Labs were generously funded by a Creative Aging grant from the Tennessee Arts Commission.

“Working with Music for Seniors is always a wonderfully enriching time – for me as artist and instructor – and for the audience members and program participants,” says Florance.

“I include being a part of Music for Seniors among my most inspiring and impactful work. Experiencing the students’ desire to engage and learn, as well as their laughter and joy while participating in concerts and classes, makes it unquestionably clear how meaningful this music and creative work is for the senior community.

“As a career vocalist and teacher, I experience a personal sense of purpose in working with this organization that I don’t find on every stage or in every classroom.  Music for Seniors nurtures organization-to-artist-collaborations that are welcoming and uplifting.

“One Songwriting Learning Labs participant, who wasn’t at all shy in expressing his doubts about his own abilities at the outset of the first series, has – in his own words, ‘come farther than I possibly could imagine!’ . . . So far in fact, that he’s recently recorded a professional demo of his first piece and is confidently seeking choirs to perform it. Right there is the proof that Music for Seniors really makes a difference in people’s lives!”

Read more about the inception and history of our Learning Labs program. . .

Music for Seniors Live Performance Learning Labs 

Inspired by 2016 International Conference on Creative Aging, Washington, D.C.

In 2016, THE CREATIVE AGE: Global Perspectives on Creativity and Aging Conference convened 350 international thought leaders, innovators and senior service providers to discuss ideas, share cutting-edge research and present innovative program models. A generous gift from the Mike Curb Foundation made it possible for Music for Seniors to attend and serve as a presenter.

Music for Seniors facilitated interactive Outreach programming for the Conference, modeled after the work we had been doing successfully since our inception. These deeply engaging sessions offered participants a first-hand experience of the profound impact that joyful shared live music has and its power to connect and transform us.

“Immersion in this exciting three-day conference sparked the genesis of our Live Performance Learning Labs,” explains our founder, Sarah Martin McConnell.

Dr. Jane Chu, then Chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts and Dr. Nina Kraus, who studies the biology of auditory learning at Northwestern University, were Conference Keynote Speakers. Chu shared her passion for and commitment to funding creative aging programming and Kraus presented her research demonstrating the direct impact of active participation in music-making on enhanced neurological functioning – particularly as our brains age.  These presentations made a deep impact on McConnell and served as the inspiration to conceive, develop and implement the organization’s Learning Labs:

McConnell: “Returning from Washington I knew that if we aspired to be a leading organization in the field, then Music for Seniors must offer outstanding educational programming for hands-on instruction in live music-making!”