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An audience listens as Classical Remix, featuring members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, performs July 17, 2026, at Emory University Goizueta Brain Health Institute in Atlanta.
Credit: Ellen Eldridge/GPB News
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ASO chamber quartet plays pop hits for memory loss community as part of brain health study
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LISTEN: Scientists know that music might be medicine for people experiencing memory loss or dementia. But how to prescribe it? That’s the question GPB’s Ellen Eldridge says researchers at Emory University are attempting to answer at the concert hall.
Scientists already know that music can help people who are experiencing memory loss or dementia, but even if music is medicine, what’s still unknown is how to prescribe it.
Researchers at Emory University are attempting to answer that question at the concert hall.
- MORE: The search for how to best use music to treat people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias
Late in the morning last month, musicians with the Atlanta Symphony were tucked in the corners, and dozens of older adults sat in folding chairs that filled the open space.
The audience was made up of people experiencing memory loss and their caregivers. Many moved, tapped their toes and smiled as violinist Alice Hong and the rest of the chamber quartet, Classical Remix, played music by Beyonce and Brittany Spears, even some Ariana Grande and Maroon 5.
"We think it's really fun to experience music of all genres in very different ways and string quartet is one of our favorite ways of playing music," Hong said to the crowd. "So, we're going to start with some Adele."
Dr. Monica Parker was happy to see someone she knows in the audience.
"She's got advanced dementia, but she's here with her daughter and she's enjoying herself because she's smiling," Parker said. "I'm all excited about that."
The woman participated in Parker’s study at Emory about how classical music can help people with dementia and other memory issues.
"We do know that one of the risk factors for Alzheimer's and related dementia is lack of socialization, lack of engagement, anxiety and a little bit of depression," Parker said.
Parker is recruiting more people for her ongoing study to listen to music, but not just to listen. Live music and the concert experience is the "test," she said, which is why they are partnering with the ASO at the Woodruff Arts Center.
Parker wants to know specifically if classical concerts can ease the agitation many people living with Alzheimer’s disease experience.
People in the study will be encouraged to attend matinees, at least four, and then fill out a questionnaire about how it made them feel.
When Parker put together concerts like this in the past, 100% of study participants reported experiencing excitement and even joy.
81-year-old Joan Ankner said she didn’t recognize the pop hits the chamber quartet played, but said, "I thought it was beautiful and amazing."
Jim Fox brought a small group of friends to the show.
"We just enjoyed the presentation so very much," Fox said. "Wasn't expecting the type of music that we got, so a big thrill."
The setlist included three Taylor Swift songs, which was fine with Vilmos Kovacs.
"I like that; I like it very much," Kovacs said. When asked if he's familiar with the pop singer, he said, "Yes," and moved his hands toward his collared shirt.
"Oh, he’s gonna show you," Fox said of his friend. "He's got a T-shirt on."
Kovacs undoes all the buttons and reveals a T-shirt with photos of Taylor Swift, proof he is a Swiftie.
Parker and her colleagues hope to see feelings like these translate into easing of things like so-called "brain fog" and other types of cognitive decline.
Parker’s clinical trial resumes this fall with opening performance of the ASO season Sept. 26.
This story was made possible in part by the Aging Beat workshop, convened by the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.
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