A singing circle at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw offers support for people
with dementia
[March 09, 2026]
By MIKE CORDER
AMSTERDAM (AP) — Megan Worthy still recalls singing in a choir in the
Australian capital, Canberra, as she was growing up.
Now, as a rare form of early-onset dementia chips away at her vision and
other brain functions, the 58-year-old is transported back to her
musical youth as she and her daughter, Bronte, sing together with other
people with neurological conditions in an Amsterdam concert hall, the
Concertgebouw.
“It’s pretty brutal,” Worthy said of her rare neurological condition.
“I’m starting to lose everything, you know, and this is really rewarding
and seeing all these people, yeah, it did make me have a lot of
memories.”
She was taking part in a so-called “singing circle” run by opera singer
Maartje de Lint at the landmark concert venue for seniors with what she
calls “vulnerable brains,” many of whom have a form of dementia or
Parkinson's disease.
Millions of people have some form of dementia, a progressive loss of
memory, reasoning, language skills and other cognitive functions. People
can experience changes in personality, emotional control, even visual
perception. Alzheimer’s is the most widely recognized type, but there
are many others, with their own symptoms and underlying biology. Small
strokes, for example, can impair blood flow to the brain and trigger
what’s called vascular dementia.
The singers in Amsterdam, who each pay 20 euros ($23.50) to attend, are
arranged with their carers in a circle of chairs under a ceiling hung
with 14 crystal chandeliers in the venue's ornate Mirror Hall.
“We always say, music is like vitamins,” said Selien Kneppers, 78, who
once managed a Dutch boogie woogie and blues band and now regularly
attends the singing circle.
Roving around the middle, often dropping to one knee and reaching out
her hands to connect with a singer, is De Lint. She and other singers in
her organization crisscross the Netherlands and Europe, leading singing
workshops.
Singing, De Lint says, is a way of keeping the brain active and bringing
family members and their loved ones closer together.
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People many of them seniors with a form of dementia, join in the
"singing circle" run by opera singer Maartje de Lint at the
Concertgebouw concert hall in Amsterdam, on Feb. 24, 2026. (AP
Photo/Peter Dejong)
 “So we give people perspective," she
says before one of her singing sessions in Amsterdam. "It’s like
actually a training for the brain, for the body, to get more
resilient and understand the perspective that you still have.”
The hour-long session clearly has an emotional effect on the singers
and their carers. Helpers regularly hand out paper tissues for
people to dab away tears. One man tenderly reached out a hand to
touch the face of the woman next to him as they sang songs ranging
from Elvis Presley's “Love Me Tender” to Frank Sinatra's “Fly Me to
the Moon" and “Amazing Grace.”
Neurobiologist Brankele Frank, who is not connected to De Lint's
project, agrees that singing can be beneficial to people with
dementia or Alzheimer’s or other kinds of neurodegenerative
diseases.
Music "speaks to brain areas that haven’t really been degenerated
yet," she told The Associated Press. "So, for example, their verbal
skills often are compromised, but music speaks to parts of the brain
that don’t necessarily need verbal skills. And so it taps into their
emotion, their sense of self, their identity.”
Scientists are studying the potential benefits of music for people
with dementia, traumatic brain injuries, Parkinson’s disease and
stroke. Music lights up multiple regions of the brain, strengthening
neural connections between areas that govern language, memories,
emotions and movement.
Megan's daughter, Bronte Henfling, said that even getting her mother
to a new environment that was not a medical appointment to discuss
her posterior cortical atrophy felt good.
“Just hearing everyone come together and sing ... it reminds us that
we’re all human and there’s a humanity out there which is really
pleasing and nice to be a part of,” she said.
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