Around the country in assisted living facilities, nursing homes, and senior day programs, elders are bonding with babies and toddlers through music-making, created by the international award-winning early childhood music program Music Together.
Residents of The Terraces in Phoenix join in the music making with children and parents from Music Together as part of the early childhood music program’s “Generations” classes (submitted photo).
In North Central Phoenix, one of the most successful Music Together Generations classes in the country is held each week at The Terraces, 7550 N. 16th St., where residents as old as 100 join families with children newborn to kindergarten age in a Music Together class held on-site.
Kathy Rowe, director of Music Together in Phoenix, explains, “This is a highlight of the week for many senior residents as well as the staff. Some participants simply light up when they come to class in ways the facility doesn’t see with any other activity. The combination of music and children is just magical.”
Rowe points out that for many of the families as well as many of the elder participants, extended family live far away and so there is a kind of surrogate family created through the Music Together class. “Music Together directors like myself are so proud to be bringing people together across generations in our communities,” she says. “We are bringing back something essential that’s been lost: intergenerational music-making.”
Music Together is an internationally recognized early childhood music and movement program for children birth through age 7. Music Together in Phoenix has been nurturing families of young children with movement classes since 1999. For more information about classes at Music Together in Phoenix and to register, call 602-363-8202 or visit www.musictogetherinphx.com.
