practical living
With One Voice founder Tania de Jong with
choir members. Photo: Graham Denholm
With one voice
The community choir giving a
voice to those in aged care.
By Conor Burke
I
like to do it in the shower. Or while I’m
driving the car. Even around the house
while I’m doing chores or standing on
a table in the pub.
These are a few places I like to sing.
Friends and family have always had a
chuckle at my noisy-singing ways. I do it
without noticing most times, but belting out
a tune or softly singing makes me feel good.
It feels like a stress release.
And it turns out science backs this up.
Studies show that oxytocin, the pleasure
and love chemical in the brain, is greatly
increased after singing.
In fact, singing has been shown to
increase blood flow, improve neural
pathways, release endorphins and can
increase learning and language skills.
Creativity Australia want to use singing,
and all of these benefits, to build a “happier,
healthier, more inclusive nation” through its
With One Voice program.
This idea consists of what is a simple and
somewhat lost concept: With One Voice is a
choir program.
Founded in 2008 by award-winning social
entrepreneur and soprano Tania de Jong,
more than 6000 people have taken part in
the program over the last decade.
Through the years, participants in the
professionally conducted choirs have
reported that they experience less stress and
feel less depressed, and over 80 per cent
say they have formed friendships with other
choir members.
With One Voice has also taken these ideas
to the aged care space. Its Altona Meadows
choir in Melbourne has been involving aged
care residents and bringing the community
24 agedcareinsite.com.au
together for the past six years.
Ray McAlary and Denise Bedford can
attest to the power of a community choir.
The couple met when Ray moved to
Melbourne from Brisbane after the death of
his wife. Ray joined the local Laverty choir
after seeing an ad in the paper.
“I saw this advertisement in the paper
one day with these three lovely ladies who
happened to include Denise. And I thought,
I’ll give this a try – and I never looked back.
Denise and I got on particularly well, but
it took me four months to ask her out,” he
tells me.
“He’s a bit slow, but you know,” Denise
says with the perfect timing of a singer.
Almost six years later they are now
married and dedicated members of the
Altona Meadows choir.
“It’s not just about getting something [out
of the choir],” Denise says. “It’s being able to
give. I am 74 now and Ray’s 75. And it is just
beautiful. We are at an age where we can
appreciate things in life other than ourselves.
“I can’t speak for the others, but I just love
to help there. I love the people there.”
“There are 21 community members in
the choir,” Ray says. “There were 22, but
one of them, Jack, has moved into the
nursing home.”
“He’s about 86,” Denise adds. “And there
are about 10 of us who meet up at the
coffee shop. It’s the local Melbourne Central
Shopping Centre after choir on Wednesdays.
So, it sort of continues on. And we’re able to
laugh, have a good chat. It’s really beautiful.”
The Altona Meadows choir is a great
reflection of the community, the pair say.
The youngest members are in their 20s and
the oldest – residents of Benetas – are in
their 90s.
“We do have a couple of twin girls who
have joined,” Denise says. “They’re in their
early 20s. We have a beautiful woman called
Annie. She’s blind. And one of the members
who joined before her, Lynn, has taken her
under her wing now.
“Annie’s about 60. She’s got the most
magnificent voice. And Lynn sort of leads her
around everywhere. And it has just been a
wonderful thing,” Denise beams.
“You know, people say they’ve got nothing
to do. Well, go join a choir or go volunteer
at a nursing home or somewhere and you’ll
see life in a different way.”
And volunteer is what these choir
members do at Benetas. Singing side by side,
forming bonds through song, the members
take on other roles in the residents’ lives.
Denise tells me about an Italian
member of the choir who takes the Italian
newspapers to the home in his own time
and reads to Italian residents he’s befriended.
“Helping, just talking to people, holding
their hands, telling them they are beautiful
– just the interaction with them – it is
just beautiful. Plus, we have a wonderful
conductor, Kym. He’s lovely,” Denise says.
Kym is Kym Dillon, a professional
conductor and musician in his own right. A
pianist first and foremost, Kym studied to be
a composer at the Victorian College of the
Arts (now an Open University) and got the
composing gig with Creativity Australia – his
first – aged 21.
“I just learned on the job,” he says, “gaining
confidence over the years. I can do it quite
naturally now. It’s one of those sink or swim
type things, and the Altona choir was added
to my roster, probably three years after that.”
The Altona choir is about breaking down
barriers between the community and those
in aged care, Kym says.
“What makes the magic of this choir work
is that the singing is the heart of it, but then
out of that flows these relationships we
forge with the residents. And that spills over
into the afternoon tea we have straight after
choir, where all the visitors will sit down and
have a cup of tea with the residents,” he says.
“It really is about building this community
and building those relationships, but starting
up with the idea of community singing. It
all flows from that because when you sing
music with people it tends to link people
together, even people from very different
stages in life, or walks of life. It’s quite
remarkable what happens there.”
Kym tells me how much he enjoys
the back and forth with residents and,
surprisingly, how much he gets from these
amateurs compared with some of the
professionals he works with.
“With some professional choirs, you can
spend a long time getting all the harmonies
right and all the finer details, and then it’s