Megan Worthy still remembers singing in a choir in Australia’s capital, Canberra, when she was growing up.
Now, as a rare form of early-onset dementia impairs his vision and other brain functions, the 58-year-old is transported back to his musical youth as he and his daughter, Bronte, sing with other neuroses at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.
“It’s pretty brutal,” Worthy said of his rare neurological condition. “I’m starting to lose everything, you know, and this is really fun and seeing all these people, yeah, it made me have a lot of memories.”
He was taking part in the so-called “singing circle” run by opera singer Maartje de Lint in the historic concert hall for the elderly and what he calls “at risk minds”, many of whom have a form of dementia or Parkinson’s disease.
Millions of people have some form of dementia, loss of memory, thinking, language skills and other cognitive functions. People may experience changes in personality, emotional control, even vision. Alzheimer’s is the most recognized type, but there are many others with their own symptoms and underlying biology. Small strokes, for example, can disrupt blood flow to the brain and cause what is called vascular dementia.
Singers in Amsterdam, who each pay €20 (US$23.50) to attend, are lined up with their patrons in a circle of seats under a ceiling hung with 14 crystal chandeliers in the venue’s ornate Hall of Mirrors.
