{"id":2459747,"date":"2026-06-15T05:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T05:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2459747"},"modified":"2026-06-15T05:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T05:23:08","slug":"music-therapy-for-dementia-sufferers-in-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/music-therapy-for-dementia-sufferers-in-new-york\/","title":{"rendered":"Music therapy for dementia sufferers in New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

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NEW YORK – In his early sixties, Rob Kaufman suffered a medical emergency that caused him to faint and hit his head on a wood floor, resulting in a traumatic brain injury.<\/p>\n

He was put in a medically induced coma, his wife Ellen recounted to AFP, and was in intensive care for about a month. Nine weeks of extensive rehabilitation including speech therapy followed, and today he experiences significant short-term memory loss.<\/p>\n

Music therapy proved invaluable<\/span><\/a> in the rehab of the one-time studio musician who said he has played for the likes of Jimi Hendrix.<\/p>\n

And today, the Kaufmans are regulars at a Manhattan concert programme designed for individuals experiencing dementia symptoms.<\/p>\n

The couple recently attended a 10th anniversary performance of the programme that featured the Calidore String Quartet.<\/p>\n

The musicians closed out the spring season to a packed house of some 100 people.<\/p>\n

One audience member closed her eyes and mimed conducting as the artists played Mozart, while another tapped her caregiver\u2019s arm as if there were piano keys.<\/p>\n

Lincoln Center, the famed arts complex on New York\u2019s Upper West Side, began the series \u201cout of a need\u201d, said Miranda Hoffner, the insitution\u2019s accessibility director.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were hearing more and more from our subscribers at the Philharmonic and the Chamber Music Society that they weren\u2019t renewing their subscriptions because of dementia, as their family members were impacted,\u201d she told AFP.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was an audience that has really supported us for, in some cases, decades,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt a responsibility to fill that gap.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dementia is an umbrella term for debilitating symptoms that can result in memory loss and impair movement and daily life.<\/p>\n

Alzheimer\u2019s disease accounts for the majority of cases, but a range of risk factors and conditions can trigger it.<\/p>\n

According to the World Health Organization, as at 2021, some 57 million people had dementia globally, with about 10 million new cases each year. The condition is progressive, and there is no cure.<\/p>\n

Cases are rising in part because the Boomer generation \u2013 people born during the post-World War II population surge \u2013 have reached their senior years and generally are living longer than previous generations.<\/p>\n

That means they\u2019re experiencing more of the chronic illnesses and health issues<\/span><\/a> that can accompany old age.<\/p>\n

Among them is dementia, said Emily Finkelstein, a geriatrics provider at the New York-Presbyterian medical center.<\/p>\n

And especially in the United States \u2013 with its expensive, sprawling healthcare system \u2013 the broader social structures to care for this growing population of people with dementia is lacking, the doctor told AFP.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a huge issue,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Finkelstein pointed to copious data supporting the value of art, music and dance therapy for people with cognitive impairment.<\/p>\n

But in the US, such programmes are localised and for many people difficult to access.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have a national health programme. It\u2019s much more cumbersome to streamline these types of programmes, even though we know they\u2019re beneficial,\u201d Finkelstein said.<\/p>\n

At Lincoln Center, the programming geared towards audience members with dementia and their caregivers is free.<\/p>\n

An Alzheimer\u2019s caregiver support nonprofit has trained staff on how best to accommodate audiences and develop accessible shows by world-class artists.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou will see people holding hands, you will see people tapping their feet, you will see people vocally participating in the music,\u201d Hoffner said.<\/p>\n

Concerts are less formal and subdued than traditional classical music performances and are followed by workshops led by music therapists and teaching artists to encourage participation and imaginative engagement.<\/p>\n

Hoffner said part of the goal is providing resources for seniors to \u201cage in place\u201d despite living in a famously chaotic city.<\/p>\n

For one-time math and science teacher Rob Kaufman, now 73, the concerts have provided a means to, as his wife puts it, \u201ccome out of his shell.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us are different than almost everybody else out there, so when we\u2019re in a community like this, we get to be different, and everybody\u2019s accepting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ellen Kaufman said when she was first navigating her husband\u2019s new reality, there were less programmes available.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means a lot for us to have this,\u201d she said. \u201cFor everyone here, it\u2019s not easy. I see what my friends are going through. They\u2019re watching their husbands change.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they do this with them \u2013 they come out with them, and they\u2019re part of it.\u201d AFP<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.straitstimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK – In his early sixties, Rob Kaufman suffered a medical emergency that caused him to faint and hit his head on a wood floor, resulting in a traumatic brain injury. He was put in a medically induced coma, his wife Ellen recounted to AFP, and was in intensive care for about a month. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2459748,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2459747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Music-therapy-for-dementia-sufferers-in-New-York.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2459747"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2459749,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459747\/revisions\/2459749"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2459748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2459747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2459747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2459747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}