CONDUCTOR’S NOTES

Dear Friends,

Welcome to Finding Light: Alzheimer’s Stories. Tonight’s concert is more than a performance—it is a union of artistry and purpose. In partnership with UCI MIND, we bring together the power of choral music and the urgency of Alzheimer’s research, illuminating the experiences of patients, caregivers, and loved ones through music’s unique voice.

We are honored to welcome Robert Cohen, the composer of Alzheimer’s Stories, whose presence enriches our journey. This deeply moving choral work explores Alzheimer’s through music, tracing the disease’s impact through three powerful movements: its origins, memories from those affected, and the journey of caregivers. The final section highlights the transformative power of music to bring Alzheimer’s patients back to the present, underscoring its profound emotional and therapeutic effects.

Tonight’s performance features over 160 musicians—a testament to the magnitude and collective spirit behind this program. The first half of our program features the UCI Chamber Singers, performing works that embody hope, resilience, unity, and love—qualities that connect us all in times of struggle and strength. This repertoire prepares our hearts for the poignant storytelling that follows, setting the tone for an evening of reflection and connection.

With so many affected by this disease, we hope this concert is not just a reflection, but a call to action—a reminder that we each have a role in advancing awareness, care and research.

Thank you for sharing this evening with us. Together, let us dream of—and work toward—a world where Alzheimer’s ends.

With gratitude, Irene Messoloras Conductor, UCI Chamber Singers & Concert Choir

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In 2008, a member of the Susquehanna Valley Chorale who asked to remain anonymous made a donation to the chorale to help fund the commissioning of a musical work on the subject of Alzheimer’s disease to honor his parents, who had both died of it. In collaboration with 2012 Grammy Award-winning opera librettist Herschel Garfein, a blog was set up on the choir’s website to record stories by chorus members and the local community describing experiences with relatives and friends who had Alzheimer’s disease with a selected group of those stories becoming the basis for the work. The work is in three movements the arc of which loosely mimics the progression of the disease:

The Numbers: An objective description of the discovery of the disease by Dr. Alois Alzheimer in 1901 including the number of individuals currently afflicted, future projections and dramatized conversations between Dr. Alzheimer and his first patient, Auguste Deter. The movement ends with an extended setting of a quote from his patient: Ich hab mich verloren, “I have lost myself.”

The Stories: A pastiche of a number of selected stories taken from the choir’s blog. With a mixture of pathos, poignancy, and humor, we meet a number of individuals afflicted with the disease, portrayed by the two soloists, as well as the recollections of family members. Two notables: a woman who still thinks she’s on a boat to Panama with her father; and a WWII Navy veteran who repeats the same bawdy story of the war so many times that the chorus can recite it by heart.

For the Caregivers: The most difficult part of writing a work about such a terrible and ultimately hopeless disease was how to end the work with some semblance of hope. The clue came in a recollection by one of the chorus members about a visit to a nursing home where a patient asked them to sing. When asked what, the patient replied: “Sing anything.” First referenced in the second movement, this idea became the centerpiece and focus of the last movement. The core of the brilliantly realized libretto is as follows:

“Find those you love in the dark and light. Help them through the days and nights. Keep faith. They sense what they cannot show. Love and music are the last things to go. Sing anything.”

– Robert S. Cohen,
Composer, Alzheimer’s Stories

FACTS ABOUT ALZHEIMER’S

The number of Americans living with Alzheimer’s is growing — and growing fast. The number of Americans living with Alzheimer’s disease is increasing rapidly. As of 2024, an estimated 6.9 million Americans aged 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s dementia.

• About 1 in 9 people age 65 and older (10.7%) have Alzheimer’s.
• Almost two-thirds of Americans with Alzheimer’s are women.
• Older Black Americans are about twice as likely to have Alzheimer’s or other dementias as older Whites.
• Older Hispanics are about one and one-half times as likely to have Alzheimer’s or other dementias as older Whites.

As the size of the U.S. population age 65 and older continues to grow, so too will the number and proportion of Americans with Alzheimer’s or other dementias. By 2050, the number of people age 65 and older with Alzheimer’s may grow to a projected 12.7 million, barring the development of medical breakthroughs to prevent or cure Alzheimer’s disease.

11.5 million unpaid dementia caregivers in the U.S. provided an estimated 18.4 billion hours of care in 2023 alone.

Eighty-three percent of the caregivers for older adults in the U.S. comes from family members, friends or other unpaid people. Nearly half of all caregivers who provide help to older adults do so for someone living with Alzheimer’s or another dementia.

• About 30% of caregivers are age 65 or older.
• Approximately two-thirds of dementia caregivers are women. The most common caregiver is an adult daughter.
• Forty-one percent of caregivers have a household income of $50,000 or less.

Alzheimer’s takes a devastating toll on caregivers. Compared to other caregivers of other disorders, dementia caregivers more frequently experience substantial emotional, financial and physical difficulties.

Source: https://www.alz.org/alzheimers-dementia/facts-figures

Alzheimer’s Stories
by Robert S. Cohen
Libretto by Herschel Garfein

Part I: The Numbers

Chorus: Here are the numbers. 1901. 1906. 1911.

Here are the numbers. 1901: patient diagnosed, age 51. 1906: patient died, age 55.
1911: condition named.

Here are the numbers. 1901, 2009.
1901: one patient diagnosed.
2009: five million two hundred thousand. Twenty-six million worldwide.
1901: Mrs. Auguste Deter, age 51, enters the Mental Asylum of Frankfurt am Main. Her symptoms are unusual. 1902: loss of memory; 1903: delusions, anger; 1904: paranoia

1906: She dies, age 55.
Her doctor is Alois Alzheimer.

Here are the numbers. 1901, 2009.
Here are the numbers. From one to twenty six million worldwide. Here are the numbers. 2050: one hundred six million people worldwide; one in eighty five people worldwide.
1901. Dr. Alzheimer’s question:

Baritone: What is your name?
Mezzo: Auguste.
Chorus: Question:
Baritone: What is your husband’s name?
Mezzo: Auguste, I think. Auguste.
Baritone: How long have you been here?
Mezzo: I have lost myself. Ich hab mich verloren.
Chorus: Ich hab mich verloren. Question:

Baritone: What is your name?

Mezzo: Auguste.

Chorus: Question:

Baritone: What is your husband’s name?

Mezzo: Auguste, I think. Auguste.

Chorus: Question:

Baritone: How long have you been here?
Mezzo: I have lost myself. Ich hab mich verloren.

Chorus: Ich hab mich verloren. Question:
Baritone: What are your children’s names?
Mezzo: My children?
Baritone: Their names.
Mezzo: My children? Auguste, I think.
Baritone: Your children.
Mezzo: My children?

Chorus: Ich hab mich verloren.

At first, a memory lapse. Jumbling words or names;
A moderate cognitive decline. You’re not sure where you are,
The day, the week, the year; Forgetting simple things like keys or coats or everyday objects,
And then the street you live on… and soon, those you live with.

Chorus: Here are the numbers. 1901. 1906. 2009. The numbers.

Baritone: Question: What is your name?
Mezzo: Auguste.

Baritone: Question.
Mezzo: Question.
Baritone: What is your name?
Mezzo/Chorus: Ich hab mich verloren.

Baritone: How long have you been here?
Mezzo: Auguste, I think.

Chorus: Ich hab mich verloren.

* “Ich hab mich verloren,” translates to “I have lost myself.”

Part II: The Stories

Chorus: I am seeing my dad on an overturned milk crate staring at nuts and bolts from an RV wheel. He has taken it apart, the kind of thing he could do in his sleep, but now he sits staring, like he’s never seen it before. But now he sits staring.
This is my story.

I am riding with my mom back home from the A&P. We’re chatting away, enjoying the day, and then we sail through a stop sign, we’re up on the sidewalk, flying past our neighbor’s house… She had blacked out; I thought we would die.

I say, “Mom, you can’t drive now.” “I drive as well as ever.” “Pop, you can’t live alone.” “You’re not putting me in one of those homes.”
This is my story.

Time forgotten, time remembered; images lost and names return.
Place forgotten, place remembered; names have vanished, images held.

I run to my grandparents, right at the door, and I hug my grampa first.
And he turns to my grandma and says, “Who on earth is this?” “Who on earth is this?”

Time forgotten, time remembered; images lost and names return.
Place forgotten, place remembered; names have vanished, images held.

Mezzo: Are we on the boat to Panama?
Chorus: Mom, you’re in a nursing home.

Mezzo: Daddy’s taking us to Panama. Daddy’s taking us to Pana- ma.
Daddy’s taking us, Daddy’s taking us to Panama.
We run down the boat’s long hallways, Mary chasing after me.
We pull on every doorknob, and swing off all the hand- rails.

Chorus: The handrails help you walk. The handrails help the patients walk.

Baritone: Speaking of boats…!
When I was in the Navy oh! we raised some hell!

Chorus: Yes, Dad.

Baritone: In any port, the order was: be back on board at midnight, standing on your feet.

Chorus: Uh huh.

Baritone: If you were late or showed up drunk, or had “I ’n I”* ‘til you smelled like a skunk, then KP, swab the deck, hit the rack, you’ll never go back on shore again – oh!
We raised some hell.”

Speaking of boats…!

Chorus: Here we go.
Baritone: Have I told you about the Navy oh! We raised some hell!
Chorus: Yes, you raised some hell!
Baritone: In any port, the order was: be back on board at midnight…
Chorus: Back on board.
Baritone:…standing on your feet.
Chorus: That’s right!
Baritone: If you were late…
Chorus: If you were late, or showed up drunk…
Baritone: Or showed up drunk,
Chorus: Or had “I ’n I”
Baritone: “I ’n I”
Chorus: ‘Til you smelled like a skunk,
Baritone: Smelled like a skunk then
Bari/Chorus: KP, swab the deck, hit the rack you’ll never go back on shore again– oh! We raised some…
Baritone:…raised some hell.

Chorus: My Dad said, please sing. Sing anything.
He talks to the pictures on his desk.
She dresses for church four days early
Sing anything: “It’s Only Make-Believe;” “April Showers.”

* “I ’n I” is naval slang for “intercourse and intoxication.”

Mezzo: Are we on the boat to Panama?

Baritone: I can’t remember the names of my shipmates.

Chorus: My Dad said, please sing. Sing anything.
A tiny woman tied into a wheelchair.
Pink makeup, rosy lipstick.
Next thing you know, she’s up and cha-cha-cha-ing.
Panama…Sing anything.

Tutti: This is my story. This is how pieces of a life were lost.
These are the pieces of a life recalled. This is my story.
Love and compassion repair every loss, one by one, time and again.

Mezzo: Look at this photograph! Oh, I remember this!
I’m in an evening gown, descending a gleaming circular stair.
Cir- cular stair…

Part III: For the Caregivers

Chorus: Find those you love in the dark and light.
Mezzo: It was brief, but she knew me; she looked at me and knew me.
Chorus: Help them through the days and nights.
Baritone: As he died, his arm lifted and his fingers looked like dancing.
Tutti: Keep faith. They sense what they cannot show. Love and music are the last things to go. Sing anything.

Chorus: Find those you love in the dark and light.
Mezzo: At the end she still remembered the pearls my father gave her.
Chorus: Help them through the days and nights.
Baritone: As she lay unconscious I would whisper that I loved her.

Tutti: Keep faith. They sense what they cannot show.
Love and music are the last things to go.
Love and compassion repair every loss,
one by one, time and again.
Keep faith.
Sing anything.
Love and music are the last things to go.
Sing.

Find those you love in the dark and light.
Help them through the days and nights.
Keep faith.
They sense what they cannot show.
Love and music are the last things to go.
Sing anything.

Sing.

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ORANGE COUNTY RESOURCES

PATIENT & CAREGIVER RESOURCES

UCI HEALTH – SENIOR HEALTH SERVICES (https://www.ucihealth.org/medical-services/senior-health)

SPOTLIGHT ON CARE PODCAST (https://spotlightoncare.com/)

ALZHEIMER’S ASSOCIATION, ORANGE COUNTY CHAPTER (https://www.alz.org/oc)

ALZHEIMER’S ORANGE COUNTY (https://www.alzoc.org/)

CAREGIVER RESOURCE CENTER (https://www.caregiveroc.org/)

UCI MIND: The UC Irvine Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders (UCI MIND) is internationally recognized for its research accomplishments in age-related brain disorders. UCI MIND is the University’s center for aging and dementia research, with our faculty seeking to understand the causes leading to neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal lobar degeneration, dementia with Lewy bodies, and Huntington’s disease.

For more than 30 years, UCI MIND has been at the forefront of Alzheimer’s disease research. It is home to one of 35 Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers (ADRC) funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), a branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and one of 10 California Alzheimer’s Disease Centers funded by the California Department of Public Health.

(https://mind.uci.edu/)

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