Innovative Performances Connect the Elderly with the Schools

During the pandemic, student musicians at Farmington High School have found innovative ways to connect with the elderly in our Connecticut communities. The high school TRI-M Music Honor Society members traditionally perform for the elderly in concerts at our school and at senior facilities through out the town. However during the pandemic students have not been able to visit the residents at senior facilities for their monthly concerts and conversation.

Each year, student music groups from FHS perform at most of the resident facilities in town such as Middlewoods, Brookdale, Anthology, Village Gate as well as the Unionville Senior Center. These musicians serve their community by connecting with senior citizens and sharing their music as well as conversation. With the onset of the pandemic last March, in-person performances were not possible. Students wanted to continue to contribute to their community and reach out to the elderly. They decided to perform virtual musical performances and create new ways to share them.

The Farmington Community and Recreation Department led by Nancy Parent coupled with iHeart radio to produce a show for the elderly across the state. Farmington High School student musicians performed and recorded their music which the radio station played and the elderly could hear in their homes. Student musicians still wanted to provide some "conversation"with their senior citizen friends, so they created a special message in an introduction to their song performance. This program called, "Seniors for Seniors" was hosted by Renee Dinino and was a great hit with senior citizens across the state.

An ongoing hallmark program of the Farmington Music Department's Tri M Music Honor Society is the Middlewoods Sunday Service Program. Mr. Robert Deasy, a community leader, created the program and meets with students regularly to select music around a regular Sunday service program theme. Groups of students perform each Sunday and meet the residents. The student leaders for the program traditionally recruit and rehearse high school musicians to perform for these services each month.

This program has continued this year despite that fact that students can not meet with the elderly residents at Middlewoods. Tri Music Honor Society leaders, Seth Frank, Lyndsey Koster, and Jerry Zhang continue to recruit students to perform for the elderly through solo performance videos. In keeping with the tradition, each student provides a personal introduction in a conversational manner prior to performing their solo. The three leaders collect these videos and create a larger monthly performance for the Middlewood residents and town senior citizens who can watch it at their homes. The students send about 30 videos per month which becomes an eclectic playlist of music, "a show."

Ginny Brown is the Director of Community Relations of Farmington and she states, "the Farmington Music Department has performed many concerts here at Middlewoods over the years and our residents always looked forward to not only their amazing talent, but also getting to know the students. We are so thankful that the students have come up with a creative way to still bring their program to us! Through technology, the show goes on!"

Robert Deasy, a longtime leader in the Farmington community believes that teaching students to become service leaders is the most important work of all. "These young people will learn to see the needs of others and assist their fellow citizens for the rest of their lives." "Honestly, I find these young musicians to be inspiration people, we are in good hands in the future with their leadership."