Young and Old Make Music in Stamford

STAMFORD — Just prior to the pandemic lockdown in March of 2020, The Community Music Network had planned to start up a multi-generational family music and movement class at The Pavilion Senior Living Center in Stamford, New York. Instead, director and teaching artist Pamela West-Finkle, found herself in the same position as many teachers and self-employed gig workers, scrambling to figure out how to teach something normally done in person with a group online.

Now, after four years, the organization is bringing the young to the old once again.  Starting this Thursday, May 16th, local families with young children, babies to age seven, and special needs children of all ages, are invited to participate in Miss Pam’s Jamboree starting at 10:30 am. Registration is required and a $10 donation per family is suggested, but numerous scholarships are available. This program is funded with support from the Robinson Broadhurst Foundation and the A. Lindsay and Olive B. O’Connor Foundation.

The class will run on Thursday mornings for five weeks until approximately June 13th (or 20th in case of illness cancelation), then four weeks July 11th – August 1st, starting again in early September to run until the holidays. The Pavilion Senior Living Center is located at 1 Buntline Avenue in Stamford, New York.

“Of all of my programs over the years,” West-Finkle explains, “my favorites have always been my multi-generational classes. The residents look forward to it all week, even asking staff repeatedly ‘When are the babies coming?’ and they truly come alive when they see the little ones and their parents having so much fun with the music. The pandemic put a huge damper on these types of in person programs, so I am so glad we are finally able to bring the children to the senior facility again.”

In the class, the senior residents form a human circle in chairs and a group of young children and their caregivers or parents participate inside the circle, singing primarily old folk songs and dancing. Everyone plays egg shakers, rhythm sticks, uses bells, bands, parachutes, and scarves, and then each participant picks a hand percussion instrument to play during the big jam session. The 45-50 minute class ends with a lullaby and the farewell ritual song.

As children become comfortable around the senior citizens, they begin interacting with them, collecting instruments, dancing with them, and bringing pure joy to the residents in the home.  That in turn, improves their mood and enhances their well-being, evokes memories associated with the music or raising their own children, and reduces their need for pain and psychiatric medications.

Pamela West-Finkle has been teaching children music and performing in nursing homes, hospitals, and hospice since the 1990s. She received her BS in Education in 1996 at Ashland University in Ohio and her Masters in Music in 2012 from the University of Montana and is certified to teach K-12 music and 7-12 English. For the last twenty years, she has brought her all ages community music programs to the Catskills, obtaining nonprofit status in 2020.

Miss Pam will also be joined by SUNY Oneonta Music Industry Intern, Katie Marie Eklund, who will be helping to facilitate the classes. Katie and her sister Gabbi Eklund make up the soulful rock duo Sweet Marie and have performed at Mountain Jam, The Bitter End, The Bearsville Theater, opened for Brandye Carlisle, Warren Haynes, American Nomads and have regularly performed in the Catskills since their teens.

For more information about classes with the Community Music Network and to register, call 607-287-0793, email communitymusicnet@gmail.com.