The Community Music Center’s Older Adult Choir program was conceived in 2011 as a way to reach out to older adults and provide them with the many personal, social, artistic and quality of life benefits that musical activity can bring. This joyful concert features the CMC Aquatic Park Older Adult Choir and guest musicians, conducted by Community Music Center (CMC) faculty, Beth Wilmurt and accompanied by Richard Daquioag. The choir is free for adults ages 55 and older, it meets weekly on Thursdays at the Aquatic Park Center from September to June, and sings a repertoire of songs that include folk, show tunes, Americana, world music and jazz.

The Aquatic Park Older Adult Choir is one of 13 older adult choirs coordinated by the CMC in partnership with a host senior or community center. Each choir participated in the 5-year Community of Voices research study, a three-way partnership between the Institute on Health & Aging at the University of California San Francisco, the Community Music Center, and the Department of Aging and Adult Services, supported by a grant from the NIH National Institute on Aging. The study, which examined the benefits of singing in a choir for older adults, found that participants experienced a reduction in loneliness and an increasing interest in life.