Want to connect across generations? Join us:

A musician and elder during an in-home concert

We’re partnering with The Eisner Foundation on a new program called Music Across Generations, which explores and celebrates how music brings generations together to bridge divides, create connection, and strengthen communities. 

This Q&A series shines a light on nonprofits across the country that are bringing generations together through music. Jennifer Carnahan Glaz is the Founder and Executive Director of Concerts in Motion, a New York City based nonprofit that brings music, conversation and kindness to older people who may feel isolated.  

Tell me more about your organization.

Concerts in Motion brings musical performances performed by talented students, adult volunteers and accomplished professionals for isolated older adults living in the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester County and on Long Island, reconnecting them with their heritage and memories through music and conversation in an effort to alleviate their social isolation and loneliness. Our roster of professional musicians represent 16 different genres of music and speak 20 different languages. We work with 200 students who play a variety of genres as well.  Each concert is tailored to the audience in order to alleviate their social isolation. What’s the music that they love the most and performed by whom? That’s what we bring. 

We reach between 20,000 to 25,000 older adults struggling with social isolation for a variety of reasons. We can reach so many people because we have developed over our 15 year life as an organization, a strong partnership model. We work with over 250+ human service agencies who care for mostly older adults, who tell us who to serve, what music to provide and by students or professionals or adult volunteers and what language they need to speak to engage their community. 

The concerts are part music and part conversation. All of our musicians are trained in a person centered engagement approach called Person Centered Trauma Informed Care. Every concert and every individual is different, so our musicians are not only playing beautifully, but they are also listening and engaging with their audience meaningfully.

What led you to create Concerts in Motion? 

I’m a professional opera singer and music teacher. I was singing all over the world when I first started this organization in 2009. I am a lyric coloratura soprano and the music I sing is pretty challenging so it’s important for me to sing any new repertoire I am learning in front of an audience before I perform in front of a new conductor. I’d often go to retirement homes and veterans hospitals to do this. Wherever I went, I would explain to my audience that they are helping me by being my audience because I am preparing to sing at such and such opera houses and I need their help. They really responded well to this and it helped me enormously.

What really moved me wasn’t just how much they appreciated the quality of the performance, but how many memories and stories the music prompted them to share with me personally. I would leave these concerts feeling so much joy and wondering to myself how can I get to do this more often? 

At that time I also had a small voice studio and I asked my students if they would like to do their spring recital in a local nursing home and invite their parents to attend. I wanted to see if they also felt this level of joy that I was feeling. Many of my students were often very pressured and stressed out and I thought this might be a way to alleviate their anxiety about performing in front of their parents. After the concert I polled them to see if they also felt this joy and they heartily agreed. That’s when the concept behind Concerts in Motion was born.  

In addition to reaching people in nursing homes and hospitals, I was interested in bringing music into the private homes of people who are very isolated – who cannot leave their apartments because they are too frail. In order to reach an isolated person in general, we need to be in contact with the professionals that are caring for them. Our first agency partner was one of the first visiting doctors programs in NYC called the Mount Sinai Visiting Doctors Program. One of their co-founders, Dr. David Muller was intrigued by our bringing music to his patients. We began by serving his patients and listening to his guidance regarding this. Bringing music to someone in their home environment takes some thought and fortunately David joined our board, even came up with the name of our organization and once our not for profit status was approved, Concerts in Motion was born!  

How does the program work? 

New York City and the metro area surrounding the city has a very culturally diverse population and many people are aging in their homes. So many cannot afford to live any other way. We rely on physicians, nurses and social workers to tell us who in their communities to serve and where – either in their homes or at senior community centers – and with what music and in what language. Our professional musicians, students and adult volunteers collectively represent 16 different genres of music and speak 20 different languages.

Our staff is focused on coordinating concerts that are consistently relaxed and interactive. The musicians who participate in our work take training with us so that they understand the intention behind the concerts. They often get all kinds of praise and appreciation from the older adults, which builds self-esteem and allows them to begin seeing themselves through a loving lens. 

During the concert, between the pieces or songs, it’s conversation time! We train all of our musicians in person-centered, trauma-informed care, which focuses on empathy and encourages deep listening. We were awarded a grant from UJA Federation of NY because the training we provide was originally developed to care for Holocaust survivors.  All of our Board and staff also take this training. 

Why did you decide to focus on music? 

Sometimes in this life we experience traumatic events and seasons that can be pretty isolating. Feeling alone in your problems can cause all kinds of health challenges physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Concerts in Motion, by way of our mission, gives the individuals we reach the opportunity to experience joy and kindness and express gratefulness and all the emotions in between.  

Music is a really beautiful gift because when we experience music, especially our favorite music, this brings us into the moment and allows us to experience pleasure and memories in a really personal way. When those memories come up, our audience members really need to express themselves and so we make sure our musicians are listening intently with kindness and care. And you can tell that, for the older people, the experience of connecting through music and conversation restores a sense of dignity. 

How are you changing lives? 

We watch miracles happen all the time. There is one man who spent his life helping children; we met him when he had dementia. At first, we brought him a professional musician and he slept through the whole concert. Then we reconfigured and brought a concert performed by our students and he came to life! The family is so grateful because they felt like they lost access to their father before Concerts in Motion was in his life. They started coming to the student concerts so they could experience him interacting with the students.

Concerts in Motion’s mission of alleviating social isolation using music and conversation is a uniquely human activity and reminds us that we need to be there for each other more than we realize so often. It’s so important. 

What is your dream for this work? 

That the organization lives past me one day. What we do is so unique and transformative for everyone involved.

What advice would you give someone who wants to make a difference in their community?

Know your value. Know what your skills are. Have healthy boundaries. If you’re trying to do this in the nonprofit setting, know that it’s not impossible but it is difficult. If you’re starting to not feel connected to your mission, it’s okay to take breaks and charge your battery. You have to have a heart connection to the work and protecting your heart is a key to maintaining your passion for what you started. It can be grueling at times, keeping it real! I have my own ways of recharging in my personal life. It is also important to have a personal life that is not the org you started. That can be hard because in the beginning it can sort of take over your whole life it seems.

Dream older/younger musical performance? 

During the time that I have been growing CiM, I have met several individuals that I visited regularly to sing for personally and connect with. Their perspective on life really brought so much richness into my life during those visits and beyond. One of them who passed away during the first wave of COVID was a wonderful man who was 98 years young when I met him. He answered his door without using a walker! He was a dentist that retired at the age of 90 to care for this late wife who had dementia. I met him while he was still caring for her. It was not an easy time. 

After she passed away, he was getting very lonely and I wound up visiting him again, this time he was on his own in a very isolating situation. I would sing for him during these visits and then we would sit and talk and listen to music together. He had this terrific sound system in his little apartment and he would use his ipad to play various songs that he loved. He introduced me to an artist named Morgana King, who was a talented jazz singer in the ‘60s. He would play the record of A Quiet Thing, which is a gorgeous song about how happiness is a quiet thing and comes in on tiptoe. Many artists have covered it, but there isn’t the same feeling. She had it just right. I’d love to hear her sing that song live, maybe with some younger musicians backing her up and my dear late friend at my side.