New Book by Music Education Professor Lisa Lehmberg Examines Music’s Impact on Seniors

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UMass Amherst Professor of Music Education Lisa Lehmberg’s newest book, Music, Senior Centers, and Quality of Life, was recently published by Cambridge University Press.

Lehmberg is the book’s lead author; her frequent collaborator, C. Victor Fung from University of South Florida, served as co-author. The two also co-wrote Music for Life: Music Participation and Quality of Life of Senior Citizens, which was published in 2016 by Oxford University Press. Lehmberg currently leads the music education program at UMass Amherst’s Department of Music & Dance, where she has served for the past 15 years. 

In this newest volume, Lehmberg and Fung examined the music-based activities at senior centers in six states before and during the pandemic. The two researchers analyzed data gathered from their pre-pandemic site visits to the centers, which included observations of musical and non-musical activities and interviews with older adult music participants, activity leaders, and staff. Data on how centers adjusted their music-based engagement opportunities during the pandemic were gathered later via a survey of center managers. The results point to the vital role that music plays in boosting the impact of services proved at senior centers while also enhancing the quality of life of the participants. The book uses these results to provide recommendations to policy makers, school and community music educators, and caregivers. Kari Veblen, Professor Emerita at the University of Western Ontario, calls the new book “timely...A valuable contribution to the field of lifelong music learning.”

Currently, Lehmberg is leading professional development workshops through Zhejiang Conservatory of Music in Hangzhou, China during her spring 2023 sabbatical. The workshops on elementary general music pedagogy are being offered to Chinese in-service music educators with the help of a translator via VooV (the Chinese version of Zoom).