Program Description
Serenade for Seniors is a joy filled interactive 'musical and narrative performance' that uses recorded music, games, and conversation to celebrate the lives and diversity of the senior community. It was launched at the Hamilton Grange Senior Center in Harlem, summer of 2016, and has expanded throughout the Boroughs of New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Atlanta, and Salvador, Brazil.
Serenade for Seniors is curated specifically to fit the diverse demographics of each senior audience. The performance format is based on Gerontological studies that show the importance of music in the stimulation of various health benefits:
- Supports and encourages social interaction
- Visual- Face to face group interaction
- Auditory- Experiencing the hearing of the music and being actively engaged in conversation about it
- Kinesthetic- Moving to the beat and dancing to the rhythm
- Tactile- Popping the fingers, clapping the hands, and tapping the feet
- Reduces stress and tension
Carson Phillips is a musicologist whose resume reflects a circuitous route back to his first love, music. His background is that of an alto saxophonist who at age 17 left serious study to enroll at Western Michigan University (BS Industrial Psychology,1967) and Rutgers University (Masters in City and Regional Planning, 1971). His studies continued in New York with Maestra Lola Hayes and then The Manhattan School of Music where he studied vocal coaching and composition, respectively.
As a senior himself, he felt it important to stay engaged with his peers and share the joys of their generation. You must remember, this is the generation that gave us Woodstock, Disco, Women's Lib, and Transcendental Meditation just to mention a few cultural highlights. Carson wanted to place a musical footnote on the epoch, and this desire gave birth to Serenade for Seniors.
Launched in New York City in the summer of 2016, it is now expanding to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Brazil.
serenadeforseniors.com
Carson Phillips
