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Music as medicine: Memory and speech are their everyday struggles – then they get to sing
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Ms Maartje de Lint (right), who leads the Singing Circle, with participants on Jan 21.
PHOTO: ILVY NJIOKIKTJIEN/NYTIMES
Nina Siegal
AMSTERDAM – On a freezing but sunny afternoon in January, around 50 people filed into a mirrored room in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam’s leading concert hall, and took seats in a circle of chairs.
Mr Marcel van der Kruk arrived with his wife Tonny, 62, who has early-onset dementia. Ms Barbara Cruz came with her mother, Idelma, 88, who has Alzheimer’s disease. And Mr Dennis Leydecker, a home healthcare worker, brought Ms Helga de Ruiter, 78; and Ms Esther Magliano, 85; who all struggle with cognitive decline.
