Your Brain On Music by Greg Whitmore, Music Teacher
Last August, legendary crooner Tony Bennett performed his final concert at Radio City Music Hall, where he sang many beloved songs in the American Songbook to 20 standing ovations. What the audience didn’t see were the moments backstage when he had to be reminded of the setlist and two days later when he couldn’t remember that he had performed the concert at all.
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VILLAGE SCHOOL MAGAZINE | WINTER 2022
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bout a year ago, Bennett’s family announced that he has Alzheimer’s. While difficult news by any stretch, Bennett’s performance represents the positive long-term impact that engagement with music has on the brain—in his case, to quite literally open up his personality via pathways of music memory when other things were forgotten. Music at Village focuses on four key elements from the Orff approach—Sing, Play, Create, Dance. Music teachers have long observed the positive impacts of this approach,
